By IANS,
Kolkata: Senior West Bengal Congress leaders Saturday expressed their annoyance with Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee for her recent criticism of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government and for her absence during Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s programmes in the city.
The leaders met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at Raj Bhavan during a brief visit to Kolkata, and complained. “We find one ally criticising the union government daily. If somebody stays within any alliance but criticises a coalition partner, it causes some embarrassment to us,” state Congress working president Subrata Mukherjee told reporters.
He said the Congress and the Trinamool Congress were in a political alliance and it would continue in future also.
“We do want the political alliance to continue further,” Mukherjee said, while criticising the railway minister for her absence from the prime minister’s programmes here.
The Trinamool Congress is the second largest ally in the UPA after the Congress, with 19 Lok Sabha seats.
Congress Legislative Party leader Manas Bhuniya complained to the prime minister that the CPI-M was misusing the central forces deployed in Lalgarh to further its political interests.
“I told the prime minister that the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M)-led Left Front government are misusing the central forces in the region,” Bhuniya said.
“He listened to our words very patiently,” he added.