Yusuf Pathan Drops Out Of Multi-Party Delegation On Operation Sindoor, TMC Says 'Not Consulted'

TMC's Yusuf Pathan withdrew from the all-party delegation for Operation Sindoor due to the government's unilateral nomination without consulting the party.

File photo of Yusuf Pathan.

Source : Getty

Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP and former cricketer Yusuf Pathan on Monday withdrew from the all-party delegation set to visit various international capitals to present India’s stance on Operation Sindoor globally. This marks the TMC of being the only party to have pulled its representative from the initiative so far.

According to a report by Hindustan Times, two senior TMC leaders stated that the party opposed the government's move to nominate one of its MPs without prior consultation.

While speaking to the media persons at the Kolkata airport, Trinamool national general secretary and Lok Sabha MP Abhishek Banerjee on Monday, "How can the Union government decide on the representative of Trinamool. They should have held discussions with the Opposition to decide which representative a party will send? How can the BJP decide which representative Trinamool will send? Trinamool is not boycotting the meeting? Trinamool is the only party which has not politicised the matter of national security.”

Congress Criticises Govt 

Meanwhile, Congress also criticised the centre's move for the nomination of MPs from the party for the all-party delegation. The Congress party on Friday morning said that Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju contacted party president Mallikarjun Kharge, and by noon, Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi had submitted four names: former minister Anand Sharma, Congress’s deputy leader in the Lok Sabha Gaurav Gogoi, Rajya Sabha MP Syed Naseer Hussain, and Lok Sabha MP Raja Brar.

However, when Rijiju came up with the final list on Saturday night, Gogoi, Hussain, and Brar were excluded. Instead, the list included former Union ministers Shashi Tharoor, Manish Tewari, Salman Khurshid, and Fatehgarh MP Amar Singh — none of whom were proposed by the party. Despite this, Congress permitted its leaders to be part of the delegations due to the significance of the mission.

Following the development, the party lashed out at the government for “complete insincerity” and playing “cheap political games” as only one of its four proposed nominees, Anand Sharma, will be sent as the delegation.

A Trinamool leader confirmed that initially, Kiren Rijiju reached out to Trinamool Congress’s Lok Sabha floor leader Sudip Bandopadhyay to be part of the delegation, but Bandopadhyay declined the offer, citing health concerns. Despite that, the government proceeded to name Yusuf Pathan for the delegation without consulting any other senior TMC leaders.

Pathan, a first-time MP from Baharampur, had defeated senior Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.