In a bid to avoid further antagonising difficult ally Mamata Banerjee especially in view of the presidential election, the Congress high command may decide to withdraw its lone Rajya Sabha candidate Abdul Mannan from the fray in the state.
As soon such reports reached the Kolkata, the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) sent a letter to party president Sonia Gandhi urging her to allow the Congress candidate to contest the election scheduled for March 30.
Congress Legislature Party leader Mohammed Sohrab in his letter informed Mrs Gandhi that Mr Mannan had a very bright chance of being elected to the Upper House. In support of his claim, Mr Sohrab cited the comparative strengths of the Congress and the Trinamul Congress candidates. He informed her that the Congress had the backing of 43 legislators while the Trinamul Congress’ fourth candidate Vivek Gupta had the support of only 38 MLAs.
A Congress MLA revealed that on Tuesday night, AICC general secretary and incharge of Bengal Shakil Ahmed called up Mr Mannan and asked him to meet Ms Banerjee and directly seek her support.
“Mannanda rejected the suggestion. He said that it would be demeaning to beg for support from the Trinamul Congress chief. He reminded Mr Ahmed that the latter had himself met her as party high command’s emissary to seek Ms Banerjee’s support for the election of one Congress candidate. But she turned down the Congress appeal and fielded a fourth candidate,” the Congress MLA added.