Kolkata: West Bengal state legislative assembly saw unprecedented scenes yesterday as legislators from all the major political parties stood in the same queue to vote for the son of the soil Pranab Mukherjee as the 14th President of India.
“This is indeed a historic moment and we are happy that for the first time in independent India, a Bengali will hold the highest office of the country. On behalf of the Congress we thank the Trinamool Congress and the Left leaders for their support. Here today we have all voted as a Bengali forgetting our political rivalry at least for a day,” said state Congress President Pradip Bhattacharyya.
Abhijit Mukherjee, son of UPA’s Presidential nominee Pranab Mukherjee and a Congress MLA from Nalhati in Birbhum district, also met Trinamool Congress chief and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee at the West Bengal Secretariat, to thank her for supporting his father.
“We are grateful to everyone for their support. It is all the more pleasant for me that the Trinamool Congress, which is the major ruling party in West Bengal, decided to vote in favour of the UPA candidate. It is also a matter of satisfaction that my father will be getting the maximum number of votes from his home state,” Abhijit said after casting his ballot in the Assembly.
However, Trinamool Congress Member of Parliament Kabir Suman did not cast his vote citing medical reasons and also due to fear that he may be heckled inside the assembly by other Trinamool legislators for his anti-Mamata stand.
Speaking to Gulf News over phone Suman said, “I had been vocal from the very beginning to vote in favour of Pranab Mukherjee. That time I was considered a traitor for saying so. But today I am unable to vote due to ill health. Also I have been warned by well-wisher’s that some legislators will try to hackle me since I had not been able to practice the politics of sycophancy which has become a norm in Trinamool Congress. I have spoken my mind and will continue to do so in the future.”
Trinamool leaders were quick to object such statements. Partha Chatterjee, state minister for industries and parliamentary affairs, said, “He should have come to see whether his so-called well-wishers were saying the truth. None of our legislators would ever indulge in such behaviour. If he has such deep rooted mistrust for his party colleagues then he should leave the party.”
In between special prayers were held at Mukherjee’s ancestral home in Miriti in West Bengal’s Birbhum district. People from neighbouring districts also came to greet and wish Mukherjee’s elder sister Annaprna Banerjee wish her for victory in the presidential polls.
