09-07-2007, 08:19 AM
<!--emo&
kull--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/aaskull.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='aaskull.gif' /><!--endemo--> Mamata gets ready for polls
23 Aug 2007, 0253 hrs IST,TNN
NEW DELHI: With the possibility of early elections looming large, Trinamul Congress leader Mamata Banerjee seems to be playing her cards carefully, keeping equal distance from Congress and NDA.
If the UPA-Left ties break and snap polls are held soon, Mamata is ready to dump the NDA and join the Congress-led alliance to fight the CPM in West Bengal, it is believed.
Expecting to benefit from the popular support she got during her anti-Left campaign against West Bengal's Left Front government in protest against the land acquisition in Singur and Nandigram, the Trinamul chief, with just a single Lok Sabha seat (that of her own), expects to improve her party's tally if polls are held early.
Banerjee, still officially part of the Opposition NDA combine, arrived here on Sunday night but failed to show up at the NDA meeting on Monday morning. Her party MP in Rajya Sabha, Dinesh Trivedi, also did not turn up for the NDA meeting saying "they were not aware of Mondayâs meeting."
Interestingly, Banerjee, also opposing the nuclear deal, essentially keeping her Muslim votebank in mind, sent her party colleague Trivedi to BJP general secretary Arun Jaitley wanting her name to be included as among the first speakers on a no-confidence motion against the government on the deal, if the Opposition planned to bring such a motion at all.
The move was seen as an attempt by her friends in Congress to find out whether Opposition was contemplating a no-confidence motion.
With barely any BJP presence in Bengal, Banerjee's target is fighting the ruling CPM-led Left Front in the state. She has also kept her channels open with Congress. While Banerjee found excuses to miss Monday's NDA meeting, her long chat with parliamentary affairs minister P R Dasmunsi, Congress leader from Bengal, in Parliamentâs Central Hall on Monday, was seen as a move to build bridges with Congress.
kull--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/aaskull.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='aaskull.gif' /><!--endemo--> Mamata gets ready for polls23 Aug 2007, 0253 hrs IST,TNN
NEW DELHI: With the possibility of early elections looming large, Trinamul Congress leader Mamata Banerjee seems to be playing her cards carefully, keeping equal distance from Congress and NDA.
If the UPA-Left ties break and snap polls are held soon, Mamata is ready to dump the NDA and join the Congress-led alliance to fight the CPM in West Bengal, it is believed.
Expecting to benefit from the popular support she got during her anti-Left campaign against West Bengal's Left Front government in protest against the land acquisition in Singur and Nandigram, the Trinamul chief, with just a single Lok Sabha seat (that of her own), expects to improve her party's tally if polls are held early.
Banerjee, still officially part of the Opposition NDA combine, arrived here on Sunday night but failed to show up at the NDA meeting on Monday morning. Her party MP in Rajya Sabha, Dinesh Trivedi, also did not turn up for the NDA meeting saying "they were not aware of Mondayâs meeting."
Interestingly, Banerjee, also opposing the nuclear deal, essentially keeping her Muslim votebank in mind, sent her party colleague Trivedi to BJP general secretary Arun Jaitley wanting her name to be included as among the first speakers on a no-confidence motion against the government on the deal, if the Opposition planned to bring such a motion at all.
The move was seen as an attempt by her friends in Congress to find out whether Opposition was contemplating a no-confidence motion.
With barely any BJP presence in Bengal, Banerjee's target is fighting the ruling CPM-led Left Front in the state. She has also kept her channels open with Congress. While Banerjee found excuses to miss Monday's NDA meeting, her long chat with parliamentary affairs minister P R Dasmunsi, Congress leader from Bengal, in Parliamentâs Central Hall on Monday, was seen as a move to build bridges with Congress.