Following TMC's ultimatum to Cong to sack Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi decides to resign
Source: The Sangai Express / Press Trust of India

New Delhi, March 18 2012: Dinesh Trivedi on Sunday night decided to resign as Railway Minister bringing the curtain down on the five-day drama after he incurred the wrath of Trinamool Congress for hiking passenger fares in the Railway Budget.

"He (Trivedi) called me and he told me that he will abide by the party decision and send his resignation," Trinamool Congress supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee told PTI before she left for Delhi.

She also said that Trivedi told him that he will remain with the party.

Trivedi's decision came as an anti-climax as he put up a stiff defiance in the last five days refusing to quit unless asked for specifically in writing by Mamata.

He said he had a constitutional duty to pilot the budget he had presented in Parliament.

Angered by his budget hiking passenger fares, Mamata wrote to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday night and demanded his replacement with another party nominee and Minister of State for Shipping Mukul Roy.

As she mounted pressure, the Prime Minister and Congress leadership assured her that Trivedi will be replaced in a couple of days after the presentation of general budget on Friday last.

Earlier, Trinamool Congress said it expects the Congress leadership to keep its "word" on removal of Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi even as he asserted that Railways is nobody's fiefdom.

TMC sources said that the party supremo and West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee is of the view that the Congress leadership and PM Manmohan Singh have assured her that Trivedi would be replaced with another party nominee Mukul Roy within two days after Friday's presentation of the Union Budget.

They said Mamata has not set any deadline but would like the Railway minister to be replaced by tomorrow.

"I do not want to stick to the ministry.

But I also do not want to run away.

The PM has to decide on it (his resignation).

There should not be any politics with the ministry.

Railways are nobody's fiefdom." Trivedi told reporters outside his house in the national capital.

Trivedi, who has insisted that Mamata should give it in writing that he should resign, said, "I have high regard for her.

She is a good human being" .

He said, "I have no problem, I have lot of respect and regard for Mamata Banerjee...

She is a great leader and is very much in her right to have her opinion, and I respect her opinion.

"There doesn't have to be everyday communication.

I have lots of love and regards for her.

This confusion happened if (TMC MP) Sudip Bandopadhyay had not spoken in Parliament...

Then things would have been clear.

Parliament has its own sanctity," he said.

He said Bandopadhyay had stated in Lok Sabha that the Trinamool has not asked the Railway Minister to resign.

The political spat had got murkier when the party chief whip in Lok Sabha Kalyan Banerjee had asked Trivedi to resign following which the Minister had asked Mamata to give the instruction in writing.

61-year-old Trivedi, who incurred the wrath of his party by hiking passenger fares in the Railway Budget, appeared to be digging his heels when he said he had a Constitutional duty to pilot the Budget he had presented in Parliament.

Trivedi had said that he will reply to the discussion on the Rail Budget presented by him on Wednesday.

Mamata had told reporters in Kolkata that she had already said whatever she had to say and put the ball in the Prime Minister's court for a decision.

"Now the government has to decide.

Mukul Roy will be our candidate for the Railway minister," she had said on her demand for removal of Trivedi and replacing him with Roy.

Trivedi's defiance puts the Prime Minister and the Congress leadership in a bind in which they have to decide on the removal of the Railway Minister or allow his continuance at the risk of possible threat of withdrawal of support by Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress.

Trinamool Congress with 19 MPs is the second largest constituent of the UPA.

Meanwhile, in an apparent bid to mount pressure for the removal of Dinesh Trivedi as Railway Minister, Trinamool Chief Mamata Banerjee is reaching Delhi on Sunday night for discussions on the issue with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress leaders.

Discussion on the Rail budget, earlier expected to commence tomorrow, may now take place on Tuesday, sources said.

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