Atal, Advani fail to placate Mamata

CALCUTTA, May 30: Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee refused to budge from her position on suspending support to the BJP-led Governme...

CALCUTTA, May 30: Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee refused to budge from her position on suspending support to the BJP-led Government even after Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and Union Home Minister L K Advani talked to her today.

She said, quot;I will not budge from the stand till fulfillment of the demands,quot; she told reporters adding Vajpayee and Home Minister L K Advani, who contacted her over the telephone, have been apprised of the demands.

Banerjee, who ruled out any possibility of returning to the Congress fold, demanded that the BJP lend quot;moral supportquot; to her party in its fight against ruling CPIM in West Bengal.

She had demanded that the Centre impose Article 356 in West Bengal and implement development plans proposed in her Bengal package. Dissatisfied with the allocations for the State in the Railway budget, she wanted immediate clearance of at least two projects 8211; one in north Bengal and another in south Bengal.

Seven Trinamool Congress MPs will meet here tomorrow to discusstheir next course of action. Although some of the MPs were unhappy about the sudden decision to suspend support to the government, they all felt that the BJP government had not given the party its due attention.

quot;We8217;ve been treated shabbily because we don8217;t use Jayalalitha8217;s tactics,quot;Mamata was said to have complained.

Meanwhile, the West Bengal unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party has not taken kindly to Mamata8217;s remark that it had not done well in the panchayat polls except in places where it got the Trinamool Congress8217; support. State Bharatiya Janata Party president Tapan Sikdar said the party had already bagged 62 gram panchayats on its own strength.

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Sikdar, whose strained relations with Mamata are well known, however, declined to comment on Mamata8217;s allegation of a quot;CPM-BJP alliancequot;. quot;She8217;s said such things about us before. It8217;s for the BJP central leadership to take up her complaints against the government,quot; he said.

Sikdar, however, fully endorsed her complaints over rigging and violence bythe CPIM during the panchayat polls after. He led a party delegation to the State Governor, A R Kiswai, today and sought his intervention to restore peace in the violence-hit districts. The State BJP did not, however, support Mamata8217;s demand for Article 356. BJP8217;s central observer Bansilal Sonee said the party8217;s central leadership was quot;fully seizedquot; of the problem arising out of Banerjee8217;s demands, expressing the hope that this would be sorted out. quot;There will be no crisisquot;, he added.