Mamata has her way

Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee today came into the capital, swept into the Parliament and took control. By evening, the leader of the UPA ally had successfully managed to get the UPA to announce the swearing in of “her man”, Mukul Roy, as Railway Minister; meet Prime Minister Mammohan Singh to seek a moratorium on interest payments by the West Bengal government. She had also, in a last minute decision, got her MPs to walk out from voting on the President’s speech in the Lok Sabha. This, despite the fact that the TMC had vociferously demanded an amendment to the speech on the issue of the National Counter Terrorism Centre. The UPA had for the last four days kept the TMC guessing — ever since Banerjee had written to the PM on Wednesday night demanding that Trivedi be replaced and the present MoS for shipping, Mukul Roy, be put in his place.