TMC reaches out to Kejriwal, gets ‘AAP support’ for INDIA veep candidate
Times of India | 20 August 2025
Kolkata: Trinamool on Tuesday reached out to AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal to get the party's backing for retired Justice B Sudershan Reddy — the opposition's vice-president pick. AAP isn't a member of the INDIA bloc now. TMC, which was a part of discussions to shortlist candidates, did not suggest any name but said that the fight should be "for the Constitution and the idea of India versus BJP and RSS ideology.
"According to a TMC senior, authorised by the party leadership and INDIA bloc partners, TMC leader in the Rajya Sabha Derek O'Brien met Kejriwal for around 45 minutes. AAP has 10 MPs in the Rajya Sabha and three in the Lok Sabha. A neta aware of the developments said Kejriwal had assured support for Reddy's candidature. "We expect around 10 AAP MPs to vote for the opposition candidate," the neta said.
The opposition bloc has decided that no such overture will be made to BJD and YSRC. "These parties need to choose their fight," a TMC neta said.
Tuesday's INDIA bloc meeting started around 5.30pm and continued till 10pm in Delhi. Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee and party national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee, who were in Kolkata, were kept abreast of the developments. While admitting that numbers were stacked in favour of NDA candidate CP Radhakrishnan, a TMC senior said: "Even with AAP support, we are short on numbers. But we decided that the opposition will put up a strong candidate and we will give it our best shot... some battles need to be fought.
"The convergence of Trinamool and Congress, who are not electoral allies, on the VP candidate selection signals a close floor coordination in Parliament. After the selection of Reddy, O'Brien posted on X: "Teamwork. Candidate for vice-president. Every single opposition party on board. United in our fight against BJP-RSS.
"This also comes in the backdrop of Abhishek's Aug 11 statement referring to Congress. "If someone walks one step for us, we will also walk one step for them. Our priority is Bengal. In the current scenario, we will stand by those political parties who will stand next to us in this issue of SIR and Bengal's deprivation. That can be Congress, DMK, Sena or Samajwadi Party. We don't have any ego. We are fighting against the autocratic BJP together," he had said.