Mamata dares Cong to leave
West Bengal chief minister and Trinamul Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee on Saturday said the Congress was free to quit the alliance.
“If Congress wants to go with the CPI(M) then the door is open. If Congress wants to gang up with CPI(M) then it will lose Trinamul Congress’ support,” she warned.
Ms Banerjee declared that her party was capable of going it alone in future elections.
“The Congress is scared because we have decided to contest the Uttar Pradesh and Manipur Assembly elections. This is the reason why the Congress is spreading canards about us. But Trinamul Congress has come to power in West Bengal on its own strength and with the blessings of the people. We are not at anyone’s mercy,” Ms Mamata Banerjee added.
“The Congress party is indulging in this mischief because we strongly protested the petrol price hike and did not allow the entry of Walmart in the retail market. They are raising by 25 per cent the price of coal, which will lead to a hike in the electricity tariff, and we are protesting this decision also. We resisted their attempt at interfering in the federal structure by opposing the inclusion of the Lokayukta in the Lokpal Bill,” she said.
[The Congress played down Ms Banerjee’s angry statements, saying disagreements were natural in an alliance and would be sorted out, IANS reports. Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi said disagreements in coalition politics didn’t mean that communication channels were blocked. “In a coalition arrangement, disagreements do occur. Disagreements are valued in a coalition. These issues ought to be sorted out,” Mr Singhvi told reporters. ]
Ms Banerjee’s outburst was the culmination of a 10-day long face-off between the two allies which began with her decision to rename Indira Bhavan as Nazral Bhavan.
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