TMC's Yusuf Pathan opts out of diplomatic delegation; BJP blames Mamata Banerjee

The Bharatiya Janata Party BJP on Monday accused West Bengal Chief Minister CM Mamata Banerjee of forcing her partys Lok Sabha Member of Parliament MP Yusuf Pathan to opt out of the multiparty diplomatic delegation reported news agency PTIThe All India Trinamool Congress AITMC sources said that Pathan who was named by the Centre in one of the delegations has opted out of the tour However it insisted that is not boycotting the diplomatic delegation and only wants to be allowed to pick its representativeOn Sunday the Centre had announced the names of members of seven delegations comprising political leaders parliamentarians and former ministers from various parties travelling to world capitals to put across Indias resolve to tackle terrorism against the backdrop of Operation Sindoor reported PTIJanata Dal United MP Sanjay Jha had elected Yusuf Pathan as one of the delegates to represent Indiarsquos stance in other countries including Indonesia Malaysia South Korea Japan and Singapore to convey New Delhis message on Operation SindoorHowever after the former cricketer opted out of the tour BJP coincharge for West Bengal Amit Malviya slammed CM Mamata Banerjee for representing the worst kind of politics PTI reported Taking to social media platform X Malviya said that Banerjees decision to force the TMC MP to withdraw from the multiparty delegation is unfortunateWest Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjeersquos decision to force the TMC MP to withdraw from the multiparty delegation is unfortunate This is a Government of India delegation and should have been kept above partisan politics Members of Parliament are representatives of thehellipmdash Amit Malviya amitmalviya May 19 2025He further stated that this is the Government of Indias delegation and it should have been kept above partisan politics maintaining that MPs are representatives of the people as wellAccording to PTI Malviya further emphasised that it sends a subliminal message that Banerjee and her party are unwilling to speak out against Pakistansponsored terrorism What is worse is that while a caucus of senior party apparatchiks prevailed likely because they were not part of the delegation other senior TMC MPs are now sending feelers to be included he said adding After all it is a matter of national pride to represent the country at such a momentAccusing Banerjee of representing the worst kind of politics Malviya said Unfortunately West Bengal is bearing the brunt of it Let us not forget that a hostile demographic shift is staring the state in the face he addedWhile the TMC sources did not specify the reason for Yusuf Pathans decision to opt out of the delegation both Banerjee and party national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee on Monday said that the Centre should not decide the partys nominee to the delegationsBanerjee speaking to the media at the Kolkata airport said that her party was not boycotting the Centres multiparty diplomatic delegation which is aimed at countering Pakistansponsored terrorism and would send its representatives once a formal request is received from the CentreldquoWe will definitely send a representative if they inform us Why wouldnt we There is no point of controversy here We are fully with the governmentrdquo she statedThe delegations are being led by BJPs Baijayant Panda and Ravi Shankar Prasad Sanjay Kumar Jha JDU Shrikant Shinde Shiv Sena Shashi Tharoor Congress Kanimozhi DMK and Supriya Sule NCPSP The MPs will visit 32 countries as well as the European Union EU headquarters in Brussels Belgium reported PTIWith inputs from PTIatOptionskeyd0ddb8ef8f1a62a8cdd22fac27fc5ea7formatiframeheight90width728params