Mamata meets Sonia, softens

New Delhi, March 10: The Trinamool Congress is likely to vote in support of the women’s reservation bill in its current form when it is tabled in the Lok Sabha despite boycotting voting on the legislation in the Rajya Sabha.

A day after demanding a Muslim sub-quota within the bill’s framework and accusing the Congress of neglecting its allies while taking the Left into “confidence”, Trinamul today dropped hints of a climbdown.

Mamata this evening met Sonia Gandhi and conveyed her concerns over the manner in which the bill was passed in the Rajya Sabha, defusing some of the tension.

Mamata told the Congress chief that her party was not informed adequately in advance about the decision to put the bill to vote in the Upper House yesterday, which resulted in the two Trinamul MPs staying away from the House.

The Trinamul leader said she was worried about possible Muslim alienation unless the community was awarded the sub-quota.

She complained to Sonia that the Prime Minister, after promising an all-party meeting before a vote on the bill, had backtracked and accepted the “CPM logic” that no such meeting was necessary, sources close to Mamata said.

“Sonia assured me that we will be consulted on all such plans in the future, and that all views — including of those opposed to the bill — will be heard before the bill is brought to the Lok Sabha,” Mamata later told reporters.

Earlier in the day, Mamata had said her party’s anger with the Congress yesterday was a result of “miscommunication” and iterated that Trinamul supported women’s reservation.

Mamata also questioned why the bill in its current form did not apply to the Rajya Sabha.

But her use of words like “miscommunication” were in stark contrast to her allegations yesterday. Mamata had yesterday said she was “upset” over the manner in which the bill was passed in the Rajya Sabha.

The sources close to Mamata indicated that Trinamul, though unhappy, was keen to ensure that it was not perceived as an unreliable ally.

“The Left, we fear, is trying to slowly cosy up to the Congress. Our principal concern is not to allow the Left to convince the Congress that it is more dependable as an ally than us,” a Trinamul minister said.

The party requires Congress support in its bid to take Bengal from the Left in the 2011 Assembly polls and needs to retain the advantage it gained among Muslim voters in the state in last year’s Lok Sabha polls. Sources said the party would intervene during the debate on the bill in the Lower House to demand a sub-quota.

But the party — which is meeting on March 15 to finalise its Lok Sabha strategy on the bill — is unlikely to repeat its act of abstaining from a vote in the House. “As of now, there is every intention of voting in favour of the bill in the Lok Sabha, unless the Congress chooses to infuriate us in the intervening period,” a leader said.


The Telegraph