By IANS,
Kolkata : Saying that it was becoming “very difficult” to work with the Trinamool Congress after its party chief Mamata Banerjee “unceremoniously discarded” Pranab Mukherjee’s candidature for president, West Bengal’s Congress legislative party has written to the party leadership seeking permission to quit the ruling alliance.
“We have seen how (West Bengal Chief Minister) Mamata Banerjee unceremoniously discarded Mukherjee as the candidate for the president. In this situation we are not comfortable to be a part of the state government along with Trinamool Congress. We have written to our high command (Sonia Gandhi) to give us permission to quit,” said Muhammed Sohrab, leader of Congress legislative party.
“Our legislators are not comfortable working together. Under the recent political scenario it has become very difficult for us to continue the alliance. We urge the party high command to take a decision in this regard,” state Congress chief Pradip Bhattacharya said here.
He said the party which till now has refrained from opposing the Trinamool will now vehemently oppose it on the floor of the house.
Banerjee faced severe criticism for her initial move of naming Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as a candidate for the president of the country.
“We strongly condemn the unethical behaviour of the chief minister (Banerjee). She advocates the federal structure of the polity on one hand and on the other expects the central government to undermine the same and provide financial help to the cash starved Bengal,” said Bhattacharya.
“Had the (union) finance minister (Pranab Mukherjee) not been magnanimous, would she have been able to dole out the sops she has been announcing?” added Bhattacharya.