New Delhi: Congress on Saturday downplayed Mamata
Banerjee`s fresh ultimatum to the party to decide whether or
not it wanted to stay with the Trinamool Congress.
"If there are any problems in the alliance, we will sort
them out by talking to Mamataji", party spokesman Rashid Alvi
told reporters.
The West Bengal Chief Minister, who heads the Trinamool
Congress, had yesterday served a fresh ultimatum to Congress,
asking it to "decide whether you want to stay with us or not".
An angry Banerjee had made the remark irked by a protest
rally by Youth Congress against alleged attacks on party
workers by Trinamool activists.
Trinamool is the second largest constituent of the
Congress-led UPA having 22 members in the Lok Sabha. Congress
is part of her government in the state.
Reports from Kolkata had it that Banerjee yesterday
asked the Congress to decide both at the Centre and in the
state whether to carry on the alliance with Trinamool and
indicated that her party is not dependant on Congress to run
the government in West Bengal.
There have been growing strains in the relations between
the Congress and the Trinamool Congress. Only recently,
Banerjee had threatened to withdraw support to the Centre if
it failed to roll back the hike in petrol prices.
PTI
