Cong backs out of Left attack on Mamata

Today, Congress spokesman Anand Sharma described the incident as ‘‘most unfortunate and highly regrettable’’. Even yesterday, the Left parties, backed by RJD, SP and BSP, had failed to enlist Congress support for their joint statement condemning Mamata’s conduct. The BJP, too, has been downplaying the issue to shore up support with Mamata.

Sources in the Congress defended this stance, saying: ‘‘Why should we back the Left vis-a-vis Mamata? The Left does not come to our defence when we are under attack.’’ They admitted that Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee had been in touch with Mamata to explore the possibility of her return to the Congress. Hence, though he is leader of the Lok Sabha, it was left to Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad yesterday to make a statement critical of Mamata in the House.

BJP members, meanwhile, countered the Left attack even in Mamata’s absence. Leader of the Opposition L.K. Advani, who was away, came to the House to join them. A senior Congress leader felt Mamata, by deciding to take up infiltration which “communal overtones”, has made a conscious choice to go along with the BJP.

The Trinamool chief has not returned to the House but Speaker Somnath Chatterjee made a statement in the House today. ‘‘I wish to repudiate…the reprehensible insinuation that my decision was prompted by political considerations,’’ he said. Stressing the ‘‘same matter cannot be raised twice in a session’’, he said a full discussion had taken place on infiltration on an adjournment motion on July 26.

‘There are fake voters’

KOLKATA: West Bengal’s Chief Electoral Officer Basudeb Bandopadhyay on Friday endorsed the Trinamool’s charge that there were fake Bangladeshi voters in certain constituencies of the state — an issue over which the party’s sole MP, Mamata Banerjee, had put in her resignation a day before. Bandopadhyay admitted that sometime back, he had ordered an inquiry into fake names on the voter list and found there were many. — ENS