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A day ahead of Trinamool Congress' working committee meeting in Kolkata to review its association with the ruling National Democratic Alliance, the party chief Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday rejected an offer of Cabinet berth and made a veiled attack on Deputy Prime Minister Lal Kishenchand Advani.
The Trinamool is reviewing its association with the NDA, stung by the Union Cabinet's decision to go ahead with the bifurcation of the Eastern Railway, a move Mamata's party has opposed bitterly.
Speaking to reporters in Kolkata, Mamata said NDA convenor George Fernandes spoke to her over the telephone on Monday night shortly after the Cabinet's decision and offered a berth in the Union ministry besides an economic package for West Bengal. "I rejected the offer of Cabinet berth which is not important for me now," Banerjee said.
Criticising the Cabinet's decision to go ahead with the bifurcation of Eastern Railway, Mamata launched a veiled attack on Advani. "Fernandes told me that the PM tried to help us on the issue but he failed. We want to know who is the real prime minister? It seems the PMO has been hijacked and the prime minister has been isolated."
The West Bengal leader said she or her party had not been consulted when the decision to appoint a deputy prime minister was taken. "We still went to congratulate him [Advani]," she said.
Mamata also accused Vajpayee of "ditching" West Bengal. "The prime minister is not only for Bihar. He is the prime minister of the country," she said.
Asked if the Trinamool Congress would now pull out of the NDA, she said a decision would be taken by the party's working committee on Wednesday.
Launching a scathing attack on Railway Minister Nitish Kumar for fomenting regionalism by bifurcating ER, Mamata said: "Nitish has done vote politics in Bihar. It is [the decision to bifurcate ER] politically motivated," she said.
The former railway minister had on Monday alleged that Nitish Kumar had been rewarded for helping in a cover-up of the Godhra carnage.
PTI
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