Mamata threat pressure tactic

The pressure is reportedly for a financial package from the Centre that Mamata has been demanding. She also does not want to be seen as part of the decision to increase the price of petrol that is hurting the common man.

While Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has already ruled out a rollback,Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee had on Saturday said the concerns of the CM were genuine but the decision to increase the price of petrol was taken by the oil companies.

Mukherjee had said that the decision to decontrol petrol prices was taken by the EGoM of which the alliance partners were members.

All 25 Trinamool Congress MPs and Bengal Minister for Commerce and Industries Partha Chatterjee will meet Prime Minister Singh at his residence at 5 pm on Tuesday four days after Mamata issued the pull-out threat. Mamata will take a final call on the issue,depending on the outcome of the meeting.

We will not only tell the Prime Minister not to go in for decontrol of diesel,kerosene and cooking gas,we will also request him to bring petrol back in control, Partha Chatterjee said.

The Trinamool Congress MPs will also urge the PM to ensure that there was better coordination between the Trinamool,the biggest ally of Congress in the UPA government,and the Congress.

Trinamool leader and Union minister Sudip Bandyopadhyay said the delegation will not demand a rollback of the hike but will express grievances to the PM. He said the common man was being affected and that is not a good thing. No,we are not asking for a rollback. We are trying to represent the grievances of the common man, he said.

With PTI

Pranab to meet Didi

While the Trinamool MPs are set to meet the Prime Minister in Delhi on Tuesday,around the same time in Kolkata,Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will meet in the presence of Governor M K Narayanan at Raj Bhavan to discuss the financial package for the West Bengal government. ENS