All-party delegations: TMC on board, Uddhav Sena gets a call as Govt smoothens creases

The party’s change of heart reportedly came after Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju spoke to TMC chairperson and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, and she recommended the name of Abhishek to be included in one of the delegations.

Soon after, the Shiv Sena (UBT) posted that its president Uddhav Thackeray had received a call from Rijiju on Monday, with regards to the all-party delegations. “This delegation is about India against terrorism, not politics, and on being reassured this, we have also assured the government that we will do what is right and needed for our country via this delegation,” it said, adding that party MP Priyanka Chaturvedi will be a part of the delegation.

Two days ago, Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut had attacked Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the Centre’s decision to send the all-party delegations, dismissing the same as a “baraat (wedding procession)”. Questioning the timing and purpose of the delegations, Raut had also urged the INDIA bloc to stay away, claiming that the Sena (UBT), TMC, Samajwadi Party or RJD were not consulted, despite having significant representation in Parliament.

Accusing the BJP of turning a serious national security issue into “a political spectacle”, he said: “Instead of building consensus, the government is handpicking MPs, ignoring Opposition voices. This is not diplomacy – it’s a show.”

In its statement Tuesday, the Sena (UBT) said: “We do have our opinions about the diplomatic situation and the failed intelligence / security apparatus on Pahalgam, and we will keep asking questions in the best interest of our nation, within our country. However, we must rally globally to expose Pak-based terrorism, in order to isolate and destroy it… We have also communicated to the Union government that while we are united in this cause, a protocol of better informing the parties could be followed about these delegations, to avoid chaos and mismanagement.”

In case of the TMC, earlier the Centre named cricketer-turned-politician Yusuf Pathan, a first-time MP from the Baharampur Lok Sabha seat in Murshidabad, as a member of one of the seven multi-party delegations. With the other TMC leader nominated for the delegations, Sudip Bandopadhyay, pulling out citing health reasons, Pathan was the lone representative of the second-largest Opposition party after the Congress, before the TMC announced he would not go.

On the TMC decision not to send Pathan, Mamata Banerjee said Monday, “They (the Centre) cannot decide the name (of the TMC representative) on their own. If they request the mother party, the party will decide the name. This is customary and is the system. We are totally with the Centre on foreign policy… If they request me to send someone’s name, we will decide it and tell them.”

While announcing that Abhishek would go now, the TMC said it would send a party delegation to Srinagar, Poonch and Rajouri to express solidarity with the people affected by cross-border attacks. West Bengal minister Manas Ranjan Bhunia will lead the delegation, also comprising TMC Rajya Sabha leader Derek O’Brien and MPs Sagarika Ghose, Md Nadimul Haque and Mamata Thakur.

The Congress, too, had objected to the Centre’s choice of names from the party to be part of its delegations, though it said its MPs would still go as the cause was bigger. At the time, the Centre argued that it had not consulted any party before picking the names.