Remove Dinesh Trivedi Mamata writes to PM

Replace Dinesh Trivedi with Mukul Roy: Mamata writes to PM

Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday wrote to the PM to remove Dinesh Trivedi as railway minister and proposed Mukul Roy's name for the post, reports say.

Dinesh Trivedi invited opposition from his own party for proposing a hike in passenger fares in the rail Budget for 2012-13. Party chief enraged over not being consulted before framing the budget rejected the hike and promised in a public meeting that the fares wouldn't be raised.

The suave, US-educated Trivedi, 61, found himself in a piquant situation immediately after he presented his maiden Railway budget in which he proposed an across-the-board hike in passenger fares to mop up an additional Rs.4,000 crore for spending on railway safety.

On a cue from TMC boss, Mamata Banerjee, chief minister of West Bengal, party MPs attacked the hike and demanded a roll back in keeping with her populist politics which has resulted in repeated trouble for the UPA government over issues such as FDI in retail and petrol price hike.

Banerjee followed up with a public declaration that she will not not allow the fare hike. She complained she had not not been consulted by Trivedi, which he confirmed.

It appeared for some time that the minister may work out a compromise with his party by rolling back the hike in lower class fares while leaving the upper class fare increase untouched.

In fact, there was speculation the that these events may be a good-cop-bad-cop act by TMC which would enable Banerjee to live up to her populist image while allowing Trivedi to garner revenue from upper classes.