Rift apart, Congress minister on scheme launching spree

In a clear sign that the Congress may soon part ways with the Mamata Banerjee led government in West Bengal, a Congress minister in the state cabinet seems to be hurriedly completing pending tasks that might help the Pradesh Congress in the near future. State Irrigation Minister Manas Bhuiyan is all set to lay the foundation stone for 14 river bridges in the state in a single day on Friday.

While the minister confirmed that all these 14 projects would be a joint venture financed by both central and state funds, he denied that it had anything to do with the Congress parting ways with Trinamool in the state. “This has nothing to do with today’s resignation-chapter. Rather, both the approval from state and central finance ministry has reached us only by last Tuesday. And so the urgency,” Bhuiyan said.
 
Meanwhile, Trinamool Congress ministers in the Union Cabinet have submitted their resignations to the President today after Mamata Banerjee announced withdrawal of support to UPA over various issues including FDI in multi-brand retail, hike in diesel prices and cap on LGP cylinders.

However, no clear decision has been reached over whether Congress ministers in Mamata government will tender their resignations in response to their TMC counterpart at the Centre.

According to sources, the six Congress ministers in the state cabinet will tender their resignations at 5 pm on Saturday.

The state Congress had sent a proposal to party President Sonia Gandhi a few months ago seeking approval to pull out ministers from the state cabinet. But there was no communication to Bengal leaders from Congress High Command in this regard at that time.

Talking about the Trinamool-Congress relations at state level, PCC President Pradip Bhattacharya on Thursday said, “We are yet to have any decision from Delhi. We have been informed that soon after TMC ministers resign, our high command would sit for a discussion. So it’s too early to comment whether we would maintain our coalition with TMC at state level or not.”

However, some Congress ministers have also expressed their discomfort about sharing benches with the Left Front in the state assembly.

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