By TwoCircles.net Staff Reporter,
Patna: Giving an immediate response to minorities’ support it got in Lok Sabha elections in West Bengal, Trinamool Congress chief Mamta Banerjee yesterday appointed a Muslim MP and a Scheduled Caste MP as deputy leaders of the parliamentary party of the Trinamool Congress. The two are likely to get cabinet berths also in the new Congress-led UPA government at the centre.
Sultan Ahmed and Gobinda Naskar were unanimously elected deputy leaders while party chief Mamta Banerjees as the leader of the parliamentary party. The decision was taken in the first meeting of the newly elected MPs of the party in Kolkata.
At the meeting, Mamata Banerjee told party MPs that Mr. Sultan Ahmed and Mr. Gobinda Naskar deserved higher place in the party to honour the minorities and SC/ST people whose superb support helped the party to win 19 Lok Sabha seats in the state.
Notably, Trinamul and the SUCI have won four of the five SC seats they contested — Bongaon, Mathurapur, Ranaghat and Joynagar.
Mr. Sultan Ahmed won from Uluberia in Howrah, defeating CPM veteran Hannan Mollah while Gobinda Naskar won from Bongaon, trouncing the CPM’s Asim Bala.
“Majority of minorities in Howrah, Hooghly, Nadia, South and North 24-Parganas rejected the ruling CPM and voted for UPA alliance,” said Trinamul state president Subrata Bakshi.
This decision may help the Trinmool Congress in 2011 assembly elections of the state and so Mamata expects as she said: “Proper respect given to the two MPs will send a good message to the minorities and the SC/ST people across the state”.
Meanwhile, Mamata is believed to have requested the Congress high command for five ministerial berths, including a cabinet post. “Both Ahmed and Naskar are likely to be inducted as ministers of state in the Union cabinet,” said a party general secretary.