Dinesh Trivedi will be told when to go: Trinamool

Upset with Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi for announcing hikes in passenger fares, the Trinamool Congress Thursday sought to snub him by saying there was no need for him to resign, he would be told when he has to go.

“There is no need of resignation. When needed the prime minister will write to the president informing that he (Trivedi) goes,” Trinamool Congress leader Sudip Bandyopadhyay told reporters.

Trivedi, whose announcement of hike in passenger fares in the rail budget Wednesday had angered party president Mamata Banerjee, had said earlier in the day that nobody had asked him to resign.

Trivedi had said he would resign if Prime Minister Manmohan Singh or Banerjee asked him to do so.

Bandyopadhyay said the party’s priority was to ensure a “rollback” of the fare hike.

“We are opposed to hike in rail fares. It should be withdrawn completely,” he said, adding that the manner of withdrawing the hike was for the government to decide.

He said the government was holding consultations on the issue.

Banerjee had Wednesday night written a letter to the prime minister asking him to replace Trivedi with her confidante Mukul Roy.

“I believe Congress has agreed in principle. In coalition, political parties send names (of their representatives in the cabinet),” Bandyopadhyay said.

Referring to talk in Congress circles about Trivedi continuing as railway minister till passage of the rail budget, Bandyopadhyay claimed there were precedents when the rail budget presented by a minister had got passed in the term of a successor.

Bandyopadhyay said the decision to withdraw passenger fare hike should be taken at the earliest.

However, he added that a decision on the issue may not be taken till the rail budget was discussed.

Slamming Trivedi for the hike in passenger fares, Bandopadhyay said the party was against any such move. “Principles of (Trinamool’s) policy cannot be changed by debate,” he said.