Congress-Mamata war reaches Delhi durbar

NEW DELHI: The rift between UPA allies Congress and Trinamool Congress over seat-sharing for municipal polls in West Bengal moved to the national stage on Tuesday, with Congress joining the attack on TMC chief and railway minister Mamata Banerjee in Lok Sabha over the railways' inability to resolve swiftly the strike by drivers of suburban trains in Mumbai.
It was the first time since the inauguration of the UPA-2 regime a year ago that differences between the two partners had hit the surface, that too in Parliament.
Congress spokesperson tried, later on, to make some amends by saying, "Our alliance with Mamata is good... we have no problem with her." However, it was seen as a proforma denial.
The bitterness betweeen the two sides came through very clearly when Congress members applauded the attack their colleague Sanjay Nirupam launched against Mamata, saying the railway minister did nothing to deter train drivers from striking work even when they had given the notice of the agitation six months ago.
The open display of rift came just after the collapse of the seat-sharing talks between Congress and TMC for the civic polls in West Bengal, and can bring a few cheers to CPM which appeared resigned to lose the fight against the TMC-Congress combine.
Significantly, Mamata, who was not present in the House, got little comfort from her TMC colleagues. Rather, close colleague Sudip Bandhopadhyay created fresh complications when he tried to justify Mamata's absence from the House.
The Trinamool MP said his leader was away because Tuesday was the last day for filing nominations for civic polls, thus endorsing Opposition's charge that Mamata was too preoccupied with Bengal politics to pay attention to her ministerial chores.
The impromptu debate allowed by Speaker Meira Kumar — a decision that surprised some in TMC — was marked by an angry clash between TMC and Left, with Bandhopadhyay hurling some unparliamentary expressions at CPM leader Basudeb Acharia.
Soon, the House had to be adjourned with the Opposition demanding an apology from Bandhopadhyay. The House met again at 5.30 pm after government agreed to Opposition's demand for a statement from one of the junior railway ministers, and an assurance of swift resolution of the strike situation.
But the proceedings got stalled just after 10 minutes as both the Left and the BJP insisted on an apology from Bandhopadhyay. "It is a matter of the prestige of the House and not something just between Bandopadhyay and Acharia," CPM leader Sitaram Yechury said during the party's briefing in Parliament later.
It was Shiv Sena and BJP MPs from Maharashtra who brought up the issue of the strike in suburban trains — Mumbai's lifeline — demanding that the government intervene immediately to put an end to troubles for millions of Mumbaikars dependent on local trains.