Realising defeat was imminent in her month-long battle with the Congress over the presidential election, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee Tuesday finally toed the Congress line and announced support for Pranab Mukherjee. With her back to the wall, Ms Banerjee candidly admitted she had “no other option” but to back Mr Mukherjee.
She telephoned Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Tuesday to convey her decision. Mr Mukherjee called her up to thank her, and Ms Banerjee in turn invited him to make his first visit as President to West Bengal.
“The Trinamul Congress will vote for Pranab Mukherjee in the presidential election. It was a painful decision for us. But we have taken (it) because of the compulsions of coalition politics. Please don’t forget we are the second largest party in the UPA,” she said after a meeting of all Trinamul Congress MLAs and MPs here.
In a desperate face-saving bid, she claimed she had no other option. “We wanted A.P.J. Abdul Kalam to be the next President, but unfortunately he refused to contest. Now we have only two options — either to abstain or vote for either of two candidates. If we abstain, we will waste our votes. So we decided to vote for Mr Mukherjee. It is our only option. But I must say we have not taken this decision to please anybody,” said Ms Banerjee.
But despite her laboured explanations, the real reasons are a little different. Sources said senior Trin-amul leaders like Subrata Mukherjee repeatedly advi-sed Ms Banerjee to vote for Mr Mukherjee. “She finally agreed after realising that otherwise she would meet the same fate which Prakash Karat met after forcing withdrawal of Left support from the UPA-1 government over the US nuclear deal,” sources said.