Congress nominee for Rajya Sabha elections from this state, Abhishek Manu Singhvi who has received support from Trinamul Congress, on Saturday ruled out possibility of an alliance between the two parties.
An “anti-BJP space” exists in the state and the commonality between the Congress and the Trinamul is that both the outfits are opposed to “communal politics of BJP,” he said.
The support extended to him is “based on an issue as well as time,” Singhvi said. Only time will tell whether the two parties who are presently the ruling and principal Opposition outfits in the state will come together for an alliance, he felt.
The Congress nominee for Rajya Sabha election talked to chief minister Mamata Banerjee during the day. I thanked her for extending her party’s support, he said and further said he may call on her.
On the Left Front proposing to field a candidate against Singhvi, he said, “It is their democratic right to do so.I will not comment on it.”
The Left Front had yesterday announced the name of senior CPI(M) leader Rabin Deb as its candidate for the Rajya Sabha polls from the state.
Singhvi was closeted in the room of Congress Legislature Party(CLP) leader, Abdul Mannan’s chamber filling the nomination papers during the day. After an hour-long meeting with the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) members at the Assembly premises here, Singhvi told reporters he was proud to be the party nominee for the 23 March Rajya Sabha polls from the state whose nomination papers are scheduled to be filed on Monday.
“The arithmetic, history and geography of this state shows the presence of an anti-BJP political space here,” Singhvi said. The Trinamul Congress (TMC) extended support to his candidature on the basis of its political stand, which was backed by time, event and issue-based decisions, he added.
“I am very very thankful to the chief minister and Trinamul supremo Mamata Banerjee for her support to my candidature,” the Congress nominee for Rajya Sabha said.
The chief minister had yesterday announced that her party would support Singhvi in the Rajya Sabha polls from the state as he had appeared in Supreme Court in some cases for her and some of her party leaders.
Singhvi also thanked all the senior Congress leaders in the state, including PCC chief Adhir Chowdhury, and hoped they would keep on supporting him.
Both Chowdhury and Mannan had stayed away from Singhvi’s programmes in the state before state Assembly elections in 2016 as the Congress leader had been the counsel of several accused persons in Narada case.
“I do not sense any Opposition at our party-level,” the Congress nominee said.
Singhvi said he was proud to be nominated from the land of Rabindranath Tagore, Swami Vivekananda, Ramakrishna, Rammohan Roy and Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose.
The leader of the Opposition in the state Assembly, Abdul Mannan, said even in the last Rajya Sabha election, the Mamata Banerjee-led party had extended support to the Congress’ Pradip Bhattacharya, “but that did not prevent us from opposing the TMC at the state-level”.