The on-going feud between Union railway minister Nitish Kumar and Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Bannerjee continued unresolved today as Kumar conveyed to Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee that the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) would have to pay a heavy political price to keep Bannerjee happy.
Kumar spoke to Vajpayee and later met Deputy Prime Minister LK Advani. He is believed to have told Advani that the government's dithering on creation of new railway zones would be constitutionally untenable and politically suicidal. Crisis-managers of the government are still looking for a face-saving formulae to pacify Bannerjee and induct her in the Cabinet.
Highly placed sources say that Kumar briefed Advani about the adverse political fallout from states like Orissa, Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka and Rajasthan where the new zonal headquarters would be located.
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According to sources, Kumar told Advani that given the fact that these states would face elections within a year's time, any move to defer the decision of zonal headquarters would be politically costly.
Bannerjee had declined to join the Union Cabinet on the pretext that the creation of new railway zones would hurt West Bengal economically, and demanded that the project be cancelled. Significantly, her arch rivals in the state --the Left parties -- supported the Trinamool leader on the issue. But Kumar rejected her demand outright.
Union defence minister George Fernandes, who was playing a crucial role in reinstating Bannerjee in the Cabinet, has also endorsed Kumar's view. Tapan Sikdar, who formally joined as minister of state for chemicals and petrochemicals today, also dubbed the entire controversy as a hypocrisy and said the issue should be ignored.
The only BJP member of Parliament from West Bengal said the CPI (M) was part of the government in 1996 when the Cabinet had cleared the decision to create six additional railway zones. Thereafter, in 1998, another zone was added. Banerjee, when she was in charge of the Railway ministry in 1999, did not try to alter the decision nor did she speak against it, he said asking why this protest now?
Neither the CPI (M) nor Banerjee had the right to protest now, he said adding that the former railway minister was raking up the issue only because she was afraid that the CPI (M) would gain political mileage from the issue.
All political parties of Bihar, Jharkhand and Orissa have come out in support of Nitish Kumar who is unwavering in his decision. West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharyya is scheduled to meet Advani on Friday to discuss the issue.
After his one-to-one meeting with Advani today, Kumar said the creation of new zones followed a Cabinet decision.