Trinmool MP Abhishek Banerjee will be part of the Parliamentary Delegation that will take India’s anti -terrorism message to the world, without consulting the party’s leadership, formulas in a line to choose central government MPs for outreach initiative without consulting the party’s leadership.
As part of the global outreach program, seven MPs from parties will lead a delegation to countries around the world, when India strongly responded to the Pahgam attack with Operation Sindoor.
Mr. Banerjee is the nephew of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who considers him the second-in-in-command in the Trinamool Congress, which has been in power in West Bengal since 2011. He would probably replace former cricketer Yusuf Pathan, a party MP who was part of solution for Jadu’s Sanj Kum.
Trinumool objected to the Center choosing a party representative for the outreach program without consulting his leadership. A fierce Ms. Banerjee had threatened to get out of the delegation yesterday, but said that if the government reached her, she would consider it.
Sources suggest that Union Minister Kiren Rijiju dialed Ms. Banerjee to calm her and take her suggestion for a representative of Trinmool. During his conversation, the Chief Minister recommended his nephew’s name and told Mr. Rijiju that he should have consulted him before taking a decision on the representative.
The delegation of Shri Jha includes BJP’s Aparajita Sarangi, Brij Lal, John Britis, Prasan Barua and Hemang Joshi. The delegation is likely to leave on May 22 and will visit five countries – Indonesia, Malaysia, South Korea, Japan and Singapore.
Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri will brief the delegation today.
Abhishek Banerjee, an MP from Diamond Harbor near Kolkata, yesterday opposed the “unilateral decision” by the government to choose a representative from the party. Only the party can decide who to hand over the delegation, he said.
