Trinamool misses a berth again

Hectic behind-the-scene parleys, intense lobbying at the highest level political and dramatic developments marked the day as the Trinamool Congress Party (TMC), one of the constituents of the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) once again missed a berth in the union cabinet yesterday.

The drama began to unfold late on Friday night when news spread that in the latest cabinet reshuffle, effected last evening, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee was going to induct Sudip Bandopadhyay, a Trinamool Congress MP along with Mamata Banerjee.

The TMC party supremo, Mamata was neither in favour of the induction of her party colleague Bandopadhyay, nor was she consulted about this decision beforehand. She had someone else in mind for the second portfolio to be given to the party.

"The NDA can't decide who will be given a portfolio from the Trinamool Congress," said Pankaj Banerjee, a senior leader of the party in Kolkata, evidently angry at the turn of events.

"Our leader had been waiting in the wings for quite some time and the last-minute hitch is quite uncalled for as the BJP's move of nominating the minister goes totally against the norms of coalition politics," said Pankaj Banerjee, the party's spokesman.

It may be mentioned here that Sudip Bandopadhyay had been courting the central BJP leaders for sometime, at the cost of incurring the wrath of his party's chief Mamata Banerjee.

He is one of those MPs in the Trinamool Congress who favours joining the NDA government without much bargaining.

He had been playing host to and courting central BJP leaders like Pramod Mahajan and Deputy Prime Minister L. K. Advani despite knowing that it did not have sanction from his party chief.

The BJP leadership has exploited this divide within the TMC. It has deliberately cultivated Sudip Bandopadhyay to keep the fiery TMC leader under leash.