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Mamata to boycott Vajpayee meet in Calcutta

Arup Chanda in Calcutta

Trinamul Congress leader Mamata Banerjee will boycott the Bharatiya Janata Party's Brigade Parade ground rally in Calcutta on Saturday which will be addressed by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

The official reason cited by Banerjee and her partymen is her engagement in Lucknow where she will attend a Loktantrik Congress convention.

Said TMC sources, "She had accepted the invitation (from the Loktantrik Congress) a month ago and will certainly attend it."

On the other hand, Trinamul Congress MP Sudip Bandopadhyay said his party had no objection to Vajpayee's visit to Calcutta. But he asserted that no Trinamul worker would participate in the rally in protest against the West Bengal BJP party appointing Badshah Alam -- a former Communist Party of India-Marxist leader who joined the BJP minority cell recently -- to oversee the construction of the dais for the rally.

It was Badshah Alam's brother, Laloo, who allegedly hit Mamata on her head a decade ago, following which both were expelled from the CPI-M.

Officially, the Trinamul Congress is also angry over the inclusion of the West Bengal Waqf Board chairman in the central Haj Committee despite 'scandals in the state Waqf Board'.

However, this correspondent learns that the main reason is different. Mamata is peeved over the fact that despite Vajpayee's written assurance to attend a function to inaugurate the extension of the Metro Railway project in her constituency there was no response from the Prime Minister's Office.

Instead, Vajpayee decided to address a party rally -- the first one he will address as prime minister in Calcutta.

What worsened matters were 'snide' remarks by some West Bengal BJP leaders about her frequent threats to withdraw support to the coalition government at the Centre and her criticism of the Centre for not implementing her 'Bengal package'.

The state BJP had earlier not extended a formal invitation to its ally, the Trinamul Congress, for the rally. However, following pressure from the party's central leadership, West Bengal BJP leaders sent invitations to Banerjee and another MP, Ajit Panja.

The invitations were faxed to the Trinamul leaders in Delhi, but West Bengal BJP president Tapan Sikdar, who was also in Delhi attending the Budget session of Parliament, did not go out of his way to invite Mamata.

The BJP leadership will keenly monitor Mamata's reactions at the Loktantrik Congress rally on Sunday, March 21, in Lucknow, the prime minister's constituency.

According to Trinamul sources, Mamata will attack the government's economic policies and urge the BJP's allies to protest against the manner in which the BJP is running the government.

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