By IANS
New Delhi : The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) has dismissed as “not worth taking notice of” a campaign against its decision to back the candidature of Mohammad Hamid Ansari for the post of India’s vice president.
A section of party dissidents have been circulating letters and e-mail messages critical of the party’s action and stand on several counts, including its decision to back the candidature of Ansari, a veteran diplomat and former chairman of the National Commission for Minorities (NCM).
The letter alleged that Ansari was as comfortable with the earlier ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as he was with the Congress party that ousted it in the 2004 general elections.
The letter thus questioned the CPI-M’s support for Ansari rather than pushing for someone from the party like Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee.
“In this kind of campaign, it is better the party does not react to it,” a party source countered.
Probed further, he asked: “What do these people want us to do? Should we support (BJP candidate) Najma (Heptullah) or should we have agreed to (social activist) Swami Agnivesh or (Congress leader) G. Venkataswamy?
“These people forget that when we backed K. R. Narayanan for vice presidentship (in 1992) and then presidentship (in 1997), he was no Communist. He was a former Congress minister,” the source added.
Another CPI-M insider said: “We are not claiming he (Ansari) is a leftist. He has his stature and standing, both in terms of offices he has held as well as in his functioning.”
Ansari had served an unprecedented five-year term as India’s ambassador to South Arabia, as Permanent Representative to the UN in New York and as vice chancellor of the Aligarh Muslim University.
The vice presidential election will be held Friday. Apart from Ansari and Heptullah, Rashid Masood of the opposition United National Progressive Alliance is also in the fray but Ansari is expected to win by a clear margin.