Congress engineered Trivedi’s revolt against TMC: Mamata

“Congress puro bapartai indhan jugiyeche (the Congress has engineered the whole thing). It is their own gameplan,” Mamata said during a meeting of the Trinamool Congress Legislature Party on the eve of the budget session of the Assembly.

“We are committed to the people and the budget is against our philosophy. We will not accept a fare hike,” she added.

The Congress refused to comment. “She did not make any public statement. We cannot comment on what she could have said at a party meeting,” Shakeel Ahmed,AICC observer for West Bengal,told The Indian Express.

Various Trinamool members denounced the budget as well as Trivedi. Firhad Hakim,state minister for urban development,called Trivedi a ‘Mir Jafar who not only betrayed the party but the people also’.

“Dinesh Trivedi is a betrayer,he acted against the interests of not only the party but the people also. You were elected with the help of Mamata Banerjee but you have gone against party policies. Nobody is above the party. So far as action against him is concerned,the party will decide his fate later,’’ Hakim,who is also a Trinamool spokesperson,said at Writers’ Buildings today.

Hakim denounced Trivedi’s statement that he tried to bring the railways out of the ICU. “It was an obnoxious statement. In a way you are commenting on the performance of your leader who was your predecessor.”

The minister also said the party was united behind its leader. “There is no division in the party. It is solidly standing behind Mamata.”

The buzz in the Trinamool was that Trivedi’s move was calculated. “He was distancing himself from the party for a long time. He behaved like he could work independently. What he did was part of a bigger game,” a senior leader told The Indian Express.