Congress seeks TMC support for RS Deputy Chairman post, says report
New Delhi, Jun 18 (IBNS): In a significant development, the Congress has reportedly sought support from the Trinamool Congress for its nominee in the election for the deputy chairman of the Rajya Sabha.
According to News 18, Congress President Sonia Gandhi’s political secretary Ahmed Patel on Sunday met Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee in what is being seen as an attempt to garner support for the party candidate.
The post is currently held by Congress MP from Kerala PJ Kurien. Kurien was denied another term to the Upper House by the Congress.
The Congress is likely to select some other candidate for the post.
The chairman of the Rajya Sabha is the Vice-President of India. who is elected by the members of the Rajya Sabha and the Lok Sabha together.
On the other hand, the Deputy Chairman is elected by the members of the Rajya Sabha alone.
While the BJP is most likely to have its own nominee for the Deputy Chairman's post, the Congress which has so far led the opposition against the Government on various issues is perhaps the worthy entity to put up its candidate for a contest.
However, given the activities of the Trinamool Congress, which has embarked on a Narendta Modi bashing campaign mainly on economic issues, there has been a general assumption that the party does not want to play the second fiddle to the Congress as far as opposition politics is concerned.
On the other hand, despite bitter criticism from Mamata Banerjee, Narendra Modi, time and again, has banked on Trinamool support in the Rajya Sabha on important issue like GST in the face of a hostile stance by, other opposition parties.
News 18 said the non-Congress opposition leaders, who interacted during the course of their visit to Delhi for the NITI Aayog meeting, are learnt to be in favour of using the election to expand the footprint of the non-NDA alliance by bringing in Naveen Patnaik’s Biju Janata Dal (BJD) on board.
The BJD with nine members and the TRS (Telangana Rashtra Samithi) with six members are crucial as they have said before that they will not support the Congress candidate.
It is learnt that this group of regional satraps is in favour of offering the RS deputy Chairmanship to the BJD.
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