Thakre rejects Mamata’s demand for Rly berth

NEW DELHI, JAN 15: The row over Cabinet expansion today took a new turn with BJP president Kushabhau Thakre rejecting Trinamool Congress ...

NEW DELHI, JAN 15: The row over Cabinet expansion today took a new turn with BJP president Kushabhau Thakre rejecting Trinamool Congress demand for Railway portfolio even as Mamata Banerjee stuck to her decision to accept no portfolio other than the Railway.

“Mamata has asked for Railways. But it is already with Samata Party. It will not be possible for us to adjust their demand because there is no point appeasing one by annoying the other,” Thakre said. The BJP president said he had given a carte blanche to Prime

Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee to take anyone from the party into his ministry.

Mamata said the Steering Committee of her party has taken the decision on Railway portfolio.

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“We have no purpose to join the Central ministry if the Railway ministry is not given to the party,” Mamata told newsmen after attending a public meeting near Midnapore.

She said that Vajpayee contacted her several times over phone and the mobile during the day today to pursue her to join the Ministry. “But, I havetold him I will not budge from my stand,” she said.

She, however, said that her party will continue to support the Vajpayee government.

She also claimed that Sonia Gandhi has deputed Madhavrao Scindia and P A Sangma to contact her in a bid to make her join the Congress during the next State Assembly elections.

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In Calcutta, the party’s spokesman, Sudip Bandopadhyay, said that Mamata would shortly meet Vajpayee to discuss the issue of her party’s joining the Union Cabinet.

Sudip told newsmen that several phone calls were received from the PMO, requesting her to go to Delhi as soon as possible.

However, Trinamool sources denied that it was because of their party that the prime minister had to defer expansion of the Union Cabinet.

Meanwhile, Railway Minister Nitish Kumar, who met journalists today, parried questions whether he would resign in the interests of a smooth coalition but said demand of specific portfolios in public should not be made by coalition partners.

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These should be sorted outamicably, he said maintaining that it was embarrassing for him to discuss the issue as his style of politics was different and contrary to his reputation.

“I have my own style of politics. It is embarrassing for me and is against my reputation to comment on such matters,” he told newsmen adding the Prime Minister was completely free to deal with the issue as he deemed fit.

“It is not in my hands. It is the Prime Minister’s prerogative to drop anybody from the ministry or include someone in the government or to allocate departments among ministers,” he said.

Asked if Samata Party (to which Kumar belongs) would split if Railway portfolio was snatched from him, Kumar said “Name me a party whose MPs are not eager to become minister.”