Mamata gets the axe
West Bengal Congress leader Mamata Banerjee was today expelled from the Congress for refusing to withdraw her statement that the Bharatiya Janata Party was 'not communal'.
The announcement came just three days after the intervention of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi's widow Sonia ended a smouldering crisis in the Congress, when the stormy petrel gunned for Congress chief Sitaram Kesri's blood.
Mamata Banerjee revolted again today and was shown the door.
Announcing the decision, Congress spokesman V N Gadgil said
the West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee also expelled her associates from the party. The All India Congress Committee has endorsed the decision, he said.
Asked about the reasons for the expulsion, Gadgil said, ''Instead of steering clear of the BJP, Mamata dissociated from the Congress and announced that she would contest on a separate symbol. This was enough for her expulsion from the party.''
Addressing the media at Calcutta, Mamata announced that her Trinamool Congress would contest the coming Lok Sabha elections on a different symbol.
Mamata said she was not quitting the Congress but was
dissociating herself from the present leadership, ''which is
conspiring against the Rajiv Gandhi loyalists.
''Only if Soniaji takes up the leadership, we will contest the elections on Congress tickets. If not, on the Trinamool
ticket.''
She said she applied to the Election Commission on December 17 for a different symbol for her party, which she launched in August last as a parallel to the West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee.
Mamata camped in New Delhi for more than three days
last week after meeting Sonia Gandhi. The latter advised her not to divide the Congress votes as it would only help the Left Front.
She continued her discussions with All India Congress Committee general secretary Oscar Fernandes and Sonia Gandhi's secretary V George.
According to the settlement reached with them and endorsed by
Congress president Sitaram Kesri on December 19, Mamata
was to stay in the Congress and contest the election as a Congress
candidate.
However, within three days of the settlement, Banerjee
announced that she would contest on a separate symbol, indicating
that she would not be within the party framework. She maintained
that her Trinamool Congress was the real Congress and, therefore, she
was not quitting the party.
"We will start from zero and show them in time that the Trinamool
is the real hero," she said.
Mamata said that former MP Mani Shankar Aiyar, who had disassociated himself from the Congress, would contest the Lok Sabha elections as a Trinamool candidate from Calcutta.
To a query, the rebel leader said the Trinamool Congress MLAs
would continue to sit together with other Congress legislators in
the West Bengal assembly.
UNI
EARLIER REPORTS:
Sonia breaks her silence for Mamata
Kesri furious with Mamata's demand
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