Kolkata, Jul 22 (IANS): Trinamool Congress' decision to abstain from voting in the Vice Presidential election has evoked strong criticism from the opposition parties in West Bengal.

The CPI(M) and Congress described the decision as a fallout of a subtle understanding between Trinamool Congress and BJP, whose main aim, they said, is to weaken the anti-BJP space in the country.

According to state Congress President Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, two decisions of the Trinamool Congress on Thursday have proved its clandestine understanding with the BJP.

"On Thursday, all anti-BJP parties signed a petition condemning ailing Congress leader Sonia Gandhi being summoned by the Enforcement Directorate in connection with the National Herald case. The only non-BJP force which did not sign the petition was Trinamool Congress.

"On the same day, the party's national General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee announced the decision to abstain from voting in the poll to elect the next Vice President of India. Clearly, the decision was taken to give an edge to the NDA candidate (Jagdeep Dhankhar). It is clear that the Trinamool Congress is now working at the behest of BJP to weaken the opposition space in the country," Chowdhury said.

CPI(M) politburo member and the party's state secretary Mohammed Salim said, "Did the Trinamool take the decision to abstain from voting in the Vice Presidential poll to protect the Chief Minister's family members from the clutches of the central agencies like the CBI and ED," Salim asked.

However, Abhishek Banerjee refuted the charges and said, "Trinamool Congress will continue to be equally aggressive against the BJP. If we had the intention of weakening the opposition space, we would have concentrated on expanding our base in the opposition-ruled states. But we are mainly expanding in those states where the BJP is the ruling party. So all such charges are baseless."