TMC draws knives against its own Railways minister, opposes fare hike

The Trinamool Congress today said they were opposed to their own party member Dinesh Trivedi’s railway budget in which passenger fares were raised for the first time in 10 years. However, the Railways Minister was nonchalant and said the party was free to have its own political philosophy and claimed he had not consulted the party leadership before deciding to raise fares. [caption id=“attachment_244131” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Trivedi has proposed fare hikes for all passenger trains. AFP”] [/caption] Soon after the railway budget was presented, Trinamool Congress spokesperson Derek O’Brien tweeted that the party was opposed to the announcements made to hike fares. “Railway Budget…what was all that about increasing fares across the board? Upper class…maybe ok…but all? Sorry, cannot agree,” he said, adding that the party had concerns with the proposals made by Trivedi. Sudip Bandopadhyay, an MP from the TMC said,““We do not support the hike in fares in the rail budget because the TMC fights for the poorest of the poor. Mamata Banerjee has never supported such policies.” “Today’s rail budget was a prerogative of the Railway Minister but the party will oppose this,” he told reporters outside Parliament. However, the Railway Minister dismissed the opposition to the railways budget and said his political party always had the right to have its own philosophy. “I did with it full responsibility and I took what steps are best for Indian Railways and the country. I have no hesitation in accepting that at the party leadership level they were not aware of it,” Trivedi told reporters after presenting the budget. Ironically, Trivedi had also referred multiple times to Trinamool Party chief Mamata Banerjee throughout his railway budget speech and expressed his gratitude to her for her guiding philosophy.