By IANS,
Kolkata : Trinamool Congress supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is to reach Delhi Sunday night amid speculation that she could meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh over her demand for dismissal of party leader and Railways Minister Dinesh Trivedi.
“Yes, she is coming to Delhi tonight,” Trinamool Rajya Sabha member Sukehndu Sekhar Roy told IANS over phone from the national capital.
Asked whether Banerjee will meet the prime minister, a senior Trinamool leader said: “I can tell you she is not coming here to enjoy the beauty of the Lal Qila or the Qutb Minar.”
Trinamool sources said Banerjee’s visit assumes significance in the light of Trivedi’s refusal to resign despite the party making it clear that it did not want him to continue in the post.
Trivedi fell out with the Trinamool leadership after hiking passengers fares in the railway budget Wednesday without the party’s purported approval.
On Wednesday night itself, Banerjee wrote to the prime minister recommending Trivedi be replaced as railway minister by another party leader Mukul Roy.
However, Trivedi has refused to step down saying he would do so only if Banerjee gave him a written order to quit.
On Trivedi’s statement Sunday that the railway minister was not anybody’s jagir, Sukhendu Sekhar Roy said: “He is right. It is not a jagir. But then why is he behaving like a jagirdar?”