Trinamul Congress supremo and railway minister Mamata Banerjee is under pressure from her party colleagues not to quit the Union cabinet till the West Bengal Assembly elections in 2011 are over.
Ms Banerjee has been advised by her close associates “not to repeat the mistake” of the early 1990s, when she quit in a huff as sports minister from the P.V. Narasimha Rao Cabinet. Ms Banerjee is expected to give an indication on whether she will continue as railway minister at a public rally being organised by the Trinamul on Wednesday.
However, a day after the train mishap in which over 60 persons were killed, Ms Banerjee has been in consultation with her partymen on the issue of retaining her portfolio. Though there has been pressure on her to continue as railway minister, Ms Banerjee is known for taking her own decisions. Ms Banerjee might speak on her role as railway minister and indicate her next move at the “Martyrs’ Day” rally to be held in Kolkata on Wednesday, sources said. She observes “Martyrs’ Day” every year in “memory of those killed in police firing in Nandigram in 1993”. On the issue of her move to step down, an angry Trinamul functionary pointed out, “Even the CPI(M) in Bengal has not demanded her resignation from the Union Cabinet.”
Speculation is rife that Ms Banerjee, engrossed in preparing her party for the forthcoming West Bengal elections, intends to quit as railway minister by November and hand over charge to minister of state Dinesh Trivedi. However, the majority of Trinamul leaders have told her that quitting before the Bengal polls would be a “political error”. It was recalled that in the Nineties, after she quit the Rao Cabinet, she rapidly faded into “political oblivion”. Ms Banerjee has been cautioned that “she needs to be in a powerful position to call the shots at the Centre”.
Meanwhile, Trinamul leaders are now preparing to face the Monsoon Session of Parliament, where Ms Banerjee is expected to come under attack from a united Opposition over her long absence from New Delhi. Her party is also looking at ways to deal with other controversial issues, including her photograph appearing in a private advertisement in a Bengali daily owned by a Trinamul Congress MP. The Left parties intend to question the railway minister on the so-called police complaint lodged by her against the footwear company, which had used her photograph. After the paper and the footwear company apologised, there has been complete silence on the issue. The railway ministry has not yet come clean on whether it has withdrawn the complaint or has decided to press charges. Incidentally, though the advertisement was published in Kolkata, the state police never received a copy.
As for the railway mishaps under her stewardship of the ministry, the Trinamul Congress intends to adopt an aggressive stance on the issue. The party is collecting details of train accidents during the tenures of her predecessors.
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Train driver ran red light at station
Sainthia (West Bengal), July 20: The Uttar Banga Express driver was alerted by the station master but he violated the red signal, Rehmat Ali, the signal in-charge of Sainthia station, claimed Tuesday. “I am sure the signal was red. But the driver violated the red signal... No one on Uttar Banga Express ... contacted me saying the brake was not working,” he said.
—PTI