KOLKATA: It was a déjà vu feeling of sorts when Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) hauled its 69 MLAs to a hotel in Kolkata ahead of the Presidential elections on Monday. Taking a potshot at the decision, All India Trinamool Congress (AITC) national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee said that ‘resort politics is coming to bite BJP back’.
While the state BJP reasoned that its MLAs were in the hotel to teach them about the voting procedure, AITC said that “BJP does not trust its MLAs”.
“The worst thing is that the BJP leaders in Bengal, themselves, don’t know their strength of MLAs. Some are saying 69, some are saying 70 and others are saying 65. Hence, they have had to put their MLAs in a hotel,” Banerjee, who is the nephew of Bengal CM and AITC supremo Mamata Banerjee, said.
“Resort politics is coming to bite BJP in the back. They are scared that their legislators will leave them, and are hence forcing the MLAs to stay in a hotel. It is funny that the MLAs are travelling together in a bus. AITC MLAs and MPs, meanwhile, have come to the Vidhan Sabha of their own free will. Ours is a democratic country, we don’t force anyone,” Banerjee added.
In a democracy, everyone has the right to vote for anyone they want, he opined.
The counting of votes will take place at Parliament House on July 21 and the next President will take oath on July 25.