Mukul Roy to reach Delhi Thursday, DMK to wait & watch

Kolkata: Television reports now say that Union Shipping Minister Mukul Roy has been asked to reach New Delhi on Thursday morning by Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee. The Congress, which activated its full crisis management team wants Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee to speak with Banerjee and try and pacify her. But it is not clear if that call has already been made. This decision was taken at the just concluded Congress Core Committee meeting at the Prime Minister’s residence at 7 Race Course Road in New Delhi. TV reports are saying that Congress has in principle agreed to respect the demands made by Banerjee. The demands are to sack Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi and put Mukul Roy as the head at Rail Bhavan. [caption id=“attachment_244509” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Mamata has summoned Dinesh Trivedi to Kolkata. AFP”] [/caption] If TV reports are to be believed a quick oath-taking may be arranged for Mukul Roy to take over. There are reports that Dinesh Trivedi has been refused appointment by Banerjee. “Yes, I have written to the Prime Minister seeking his replacement with Mukul Roy, another union minister,” Banerjee told PTI. The discussion on the Railway Budget will be held after the discussion on the President’s speech is over. The Congress is hoping that during the interim this crisis will be effectively dealt with. Meanwhile, Mamata has summoned Dinesh Trivedi to Kolkata. Television commentators are talking about factions emerging in TMC between those closest to Mamata and those who are not, the confusing thing being yesterday’s favoured minister can easily fall out of favour today (as has happened with state higher education minister Bratya Basu). They are saying when Dinesh Trivedi announced the fare increase, Mamata sent an SMS to Sudip Banerjee and other MPs asking them to oppose the rail budget which took them by surprise especially since Trinamul’s Sultan Ahmed had already said that the fare increases had to be done because that was unavoidable. Ahmed eventually did a 180 degree turn saying he did not know the party position. Mamata apparently told Dinesh Trivedi not to increase fares but he said the railways is in ICU. Bengali TV channel 24 Ghonta is saying PM has accepted the name of Mukul Roy and Trinamool is calling it a victory. The action of the West Bengal chief minister came late in the night after Trivedi’s stout defence of his proposal for across-the-board increase in rail fares to net Rs 4,000 crore in the Budget. Throughout the day, the 61-year-old Trivedi had been maintaining that whatever he had done was in the interest of the railways and the country and that he was not worried out the loss of his job. Trinamool Congress, which has been toeing a populist line on issues like petrol price hike, asked him to rollback the increase and put him on notice that it would suggest another name to the Prime Minister as his replacement in the Railway Ministry. The party also threatened to move cut motions on the issue and had decided to meet the Prime Minister to press for rollback. Mukul Roy, Minister of State for Shipping, is a senior leader of Trinamool Congress who had earlier held the post of Minister of State for Railways for two years till July last year. On the DMK front as well, the Congress-led government is facing trouble. The DMK is calling the government anti-Tamil over its stand on the US-pushed resolution on Sri Lankan war excess during the anti-LTTE operations. The Tamil Nadu party is feeling that the Indian government’s unclear stand on the all-important voting at the UNHRC on the Sri Lankan military excess during the anti-LTTE operations is seen as pro-Colombo attitude. DMK chief Karunanidhi said that the government stand on Sri Lanka betrays the Tamil sentiments. With inputs from PTI