Kolkata/New Delhi : The Trinamool Congress Saturday asked Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi to resign from the post, but the latter has sought written instructions from party chief Mamata Banerjee.
Trinamool Congress leader Kalyan Banerjee telephoned Trivedi, who has fallen out with the party leadership after he hiked passenger tariff in the railway budget, and asked him to make an honourable exit before he is dismissed.
According to Kalyan Banerjee, when Trivedi insisted on an instruction in black and white from the party supremo, he countered that the Barrackpore MP had not sought any written communication from Mamata Banerjee prior to taking oath as minister.
Kalyan Banerjee said Trivedi told him that he wanted the party’s decision to be conveyed in writing by Mamata, who is the West Bengal chief minister.
Kalyan Banerjee, the Lok Sabha Trinamool chief whip, told him that it was not fair to insist on party directives in writing and pointed out that when he became a minister he had not insisted in writing about it from the party leader Mamata.
Trinamool sources said Banerjee told Trivedi as the party no more wanted him to remain a minister he should put in his papers.
“Because the party wanted you to take oath as minister, you did so. Today the party no more wants you to remain minister. So you should resign,” Banerjee told Trivedi.
Meanwhile, Trivedi told a channel that he was ready to resign if the Trinamool conveyed that to him properly.
“I will abide by the party’s decision. If I wanted to stay in my chair, I could have. I don’t want to be humiliated like this. I have done my bit. Let them convey it to me properly. I will resign in a day or two,” Trivedi told CNN-IBN news channel.
Trivedi’s maiden rail budget Wednesday proposed an all-round fare hike after 10 years.
Angry with the hike, his party chief Banerjee urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Wednesday night to replace Trivedi with another party leader, Mukul Roy.
IANS
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