Abhishek Manu Singhvi: Grateful to TMC for support in Rajya Sabha polls

Kolkata: Expressing his gratitude to chief minister Mamata Banerjee for supporting him in the upcoming Rajya Sabha Elections Congress candidate for the RS polls, Abhishek Manu Singhvi on Saturday stressed on an issue-based understanding with the Trinamul Congress in view of a massive anti-BJP environment in West Bengal.

At around 11 am the Congress veteran visited the Assembly where he met leader of the Opposition Abdul Mannan, Congress Rajya Sabha MP Pradip Bhattacharya and Trinamul Congress MLA Tapas Roy.

Mr Singhvi later said, “Whichever part or place you belong to, the arithmatic, history and geography of this state politically shows a huge anti-BJP commonality. Although I am originally from Rajasthan, I will always want, if forced to go out of Rajasthan, that I would contest from such a land which belongs to Aurobindo, Rabindranath Tagore, Rammohan Roy, Subhas Chandra Bose, Swami Vivekananda and Ramakrishna. I thank the ruling party here and its chief Mamata Banerjee.”

He added, “I will certainly meet her to express my gratitude to her according to political courtsey but when and where that will be decided later. It is my duty to thank her in person.” Asked if an alliance is going to take place between the Congress and Trinamul.

Mr Singhvi said, “Adding the word alliance with the RS polls is not correct. It is a time based decision. There are larger issues which should be coordinated and they are coordinated. There are two different things but two real things.” Replying to the question of whether his candidature would come in way of the understanding between the Congress and the Left Front which fielded former CPI(M) MLA Rabin Deb as a candidate against him, Mr Singhvi argued, “In democracy they have the right to take a decision. I should not comment on it. I only wanted to thank our party leaders.”