President Pratibha Patil spent a day in Kolkata on Wednesday attending three functions. What she did not get to know was the intense political crossfire that erupted between the Trinamool Congress and the CPM over her engagements in the city.
The fight boiled down to one between the state chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee. While Banerjee dropped the state chief minister from the list of invitees at the foundation-laying ceremony of a new metro railway project, Bhattacharjee decided to decline an invitation to a dinner in honour of the President at Raj Bhavan in the evening.
The state finance minister exploded in anger first, on Wednesday afternoon, when a media person asked him why the CM was not present at the railway programme attended, apart from the President by Governor MK Narayanan, Union finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, all the six Union ministers of state from the Trinamool Congress, Kolkata mayor Shovon Chatterjee, and senior railway officials. Dasgupta shouted: ?You ask the railway minister about this?.
The list of invitees at the governor?s dinner included, apart from the chief minister, the Chief Justice of Calcutta High Court, Jaynarayan Patel, Kolkata Mayor Shovon Chatterjee, Leader of the Opposition in the state assembly Partha Chatterjee.
On Tuesday, Bhattacharjee said he did not get an invitation for the railway function which was today attended by, apart from the President, Governor MK Narayanan, Union finance minister Pranab Mukherjee and other TMC ministers. No minister or official of the state government was present.
In her speech, Banerjee took a dig at the Left Front government: ?People gave their land willingly for the project with route length of 16.72 km that will have 13 stations between the two terminals at Joka and BBD Bag. ?We did not take any land forcibly,? she said.
She announced that the names of six stations will be named after singers Md Rafi, Kishore Kumar, Mohini Mohan Choudhury, football legend Gostha Pal, poet Iqbal and the tenth Sikh Guru, Guru Govind Singh. President Patil while referring to the `dynamic railway minister?, expressed hope that the project will be completed before schedule.
