Mamata has seat trump card safe

Mar 09, 2011 |

Age Correspondent

New Delhi

If Trinamul Congress leader and railway minister Mamata Banerjee appeared pleased on Tuesday, it was not perhaps without reason. For the leader whose party is heading for the West Bengal Assembly polls in just a few weeks from now appears to be having the upper hand as far as a seat-sharing arrangements with the Congress goes.

While Ms Banerjee wasn’t revealing anything on Tuesday, keeping her cards close to her chest, it is learnt that not only has the Trinamul Congress offered far less seats than what the Bengal unit of the Congress is demanding from the party but has also chosen to offer what are described as “losing” seats for the Congress.
While the Trinamul Congress leader headed back for Kolkata on Tuesday evening, having given her reply to the debate on the Rail Budget in the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday, the next two or three days are expected to be crucial as far as seat-sharing with the Congress and the finalisation of the party’s nominees are concerned. Among the candidates the Trinamul Congress is expected to field is Rukbanur Rehman, the brother of Rizwanur Rehman who died a mysterious death on the railway tracks in Kolkata in 2007 shortly after he had married Priyanka Todi, the daughter of industrialist Ashok Todi against her family’s wishes.
The Trinamul Congress has made an offer of just about 60 seats to the Congress as against the demand for 98 seats put forth by the latter. What has further rubbed salt into the Congress’ Bengal unit is that many of the seats offered are those where its candidates stand to lose. Among the seats offered are several in North Bengal which the Congress apparently does not see as a good bet.

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