New Delhi: Trinamool Congress MP Abhishek Banerjee, nephew of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, will join a parliamentary delegation to promote India’s anti-terror stance globally.
This came a day after Trinamool raised objections to the centre’s unilateral selection of its representative and refused to part of the outreach programme.
Reports indicate that the issue was resolved after Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju spoke to the TMC chief. Abhishek will now replace Trinamool MP and former cricketer-MP Yusuf Pathan in the delegation led by JDU’s Sanjay Kumar Jha. This delegation, which also includes BJP’s Aparajita Sarangi, Brij Lal, John Brittas, Prasan Baruah, and Hemang Joshi, will visit Indonesia, Malaysia, South Korea, Japan, and Singapore, departing on May 22.
Rijiju had reportedly invited TMC’s Lok Sabha floor leader Sudip Bandopadhyay to join the delegation, but Bandopadhyay declined due to health reasons. The government then proceeded to announce Yusuf Pathan’s name, which did not go down well with the TMC leadership.
“They (Centre) cannot decide the name. If they request the mother party, the party will decide the name. This is the custom; this is the system. We are with the Central government regarding external affairs policy, and we are fully supporting them,” Mamata told reporters.
Earlier, the Congress had also raised a hue and cry over the government rejecting three of the four names it recommended and picking 3 other leaders for the delegations.
