Tie up; No tie up

Mamata Banerjee, chief of the biggest ally of UPA government has kept Congress on tenterhook. Since Trinamool has joined UPA, clouds are hanging over government. It’s a party, UPA can’t depend upon. The most crucial time when UPA needed it the most in parliament in its support over Lokpal Bill, Trinamool was standing with the opposition with its demand to remove Lokayukta clause. Mamata said that centre was framing laws which were binding on state and centre should not impinge on state matters. Centre should be concerned about Lokpal at centre and not Lokayukta at state as that’s the matter of state and should be left to be dealt by the state only. Trinamool has 19 members in Lok Sabha and 6 in Rajya Sabha. The moment Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee announced FDI in retail sector, Mamata attacked back saying decision had to be rolled back and she didn’t pacify until Pranab da gave her assurance. She said it was a unilateral decision of UPA and announcement was made without consultation with allies. Mamata even threatened to withdraw support at UPA’s decision to hike fuel prices. Before this, Mamata even refused to accompany Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on his visit to Bangladesh where he was initially likely to sign treaty on equal water sharing of Teesta river with Bangladesh. Despite Manmohan’s assurance to Manmohan that treaty would not be signed, Mamata remained firm on not being part of the trip scheduled for Sep 6 and 7. Mamata was among five chief ministers of Assam, Tripura, Mizoram and Meghalaya, who were to accompany Manmohan in Bangladesh but Mamata pulled out at the last moment and government had to face embarrassment. The latest one was the dispute over renaming Indira bhavan in Kolkata after the poet Nazrul Islam. All limits were crossed when both parties came out in open with their arms up. Congress staged protest against Trinamool decision over renaming the Bhavan. Responding to this, Trinamool accused Congress of having colluded with CPI(M) which is the main opposition party of Trinamool Congress in West Bengal and ruled for 34 years before Trinamool Congress came in power in 2011. Mamata said, “ Congress is protesting over renaming of Bhavan but it never protested when the Bhavan was being used by Jyoti Basu as CPM party office during his regime of 34 years. Despite all this I have never used strong words against Sonia or Manmohan Singh”. It’s just the beginning. There is more to see in future. Big question is whether Trinamool would remain with Congress or move separately!