After battering the Left in the West Bengal civic body elections, railway minister Mamata Banerjee is preparing to deliver it the knock-out punch. She is learnt to be contemplating stationing herself in the state to consolidate the gains of the civic polls and get the momentum going till the assembly elections next year.
“She does not want to leave anything to chance. She thinks it’s time to take the Leftists head-on,” a highly placed party source told DNA. Mamata plans to travel extensively through West Bengal for the next 12 months to build a connect with people, the source said.
The issue was discussed threadbare within the Trinamool Congress (TC), another party source said, adding there was a suggestion that she should retain the portfolio as there was no statutory requirement for her to stay in Delhi as railway minister. Alternatively, she can remain a minister without portfolio. The charge of the ministry could be given to any of her trusted political lieutenants, he said.
In such a scenario, Dinesh Trivedi, Union minister of state for health, could emerge as the favourite. Barring Mamata, all six TC ministers at the Centre are first-timers, most of them first-term MPs. It is also learnt that Digvijay Singh, an independent Lok Sabha member from Bihar and close associate of the TC chief, could be given charge of the ministry.
He was a deputy minister of the railways in the Chandra Shekhar government and held the finance portfolio at some point as well.
Mamata is expected to return to New Delhi sometime next week and apprise United Progressive Alliance (UPA) chairperson Sonia Gandhi and prime minister Manmohan Singh of her strategy.
Given its political status in West Bengal, the Congress is not likely to overrule her proposal. The party fought the civic polls alone and cut a sorry figure.
