Trivedi is defiant as his party piles on pressure

In Kolkata,Mamata said,“Our nominee for the next railway minister is Mukul Roy. He is our (party’s) general secretary and a trusted soldier of the Trinamool Congress. He has been in Rajya Sabha for the last six years. We have sent our nomination to the government of India,and now it will be the decision of the government.”

Asked why she had not directly asked Trivedi to step down,Mamata said: “I do not need to talk to him. You (reporters) talk to Kalyan Banerjee.”

“I have already said what I had to say to the PM,” Mamata said. She added that as far as the Trinamool Congress was concerned,Trivedi was no longer railway minister,Roy was.

Mamata wants Trivedi sacked before the debate on the rail budget. Kalyan Banerjee said he had asked Trivedi to go with dignity before he was forced out,and that the railway minister was not being rational in his obstinacy.

“Today I had called up Dinesh Trivedi and asked him to resign. I told him that he would be sacked ultimately and before that he should have a decent departure by submitting his resignation. But he asked me for a written letter,” Banerjee said.

“When he (Trivedi) took oath,he was not given a written letter. But he understood that the party is wanting him (to become minister). But now party does not need him,and he should realize that and resign.

“He was not elected by the votes of 122 crore people of the country. He got this post with Mamata Banerjee’s photo and the TMC ticket. If he says now that only he thinks about the country and our party does not,then I have to say that he is not a rational person,” Banerjee said.

Trivedi confirmed to The Sunday Express: “I will take orders from the party supremo herself and only in writing. I have always said that I have no problem in resigning.”

But Sudip Bandopadhyay,leader of the Trinamool parliamentary party in the Lok Sabha,said,“”Nothing will be given in writing.”

Sources in the UPA suggested that a reason for the TMC’s refusal to give an order to Trivedi in writing could be Bandopadhyay’s statement in Lok Sabha on Thursday that the party had never asked Trivedi to resign,and that the matter was to be settled between the PM and Mamata Banerjee.