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Support to BJP on so long as Vajpayee is PM, says Mamata

Trinamul Congress chairperson Mamata Banerjee has said it was because of Prime Minister A B Vajpayee that her party was still supporting the Bharatiya Janata Party-led coalition government at the Centre.

Addressing the media after releasing a children's music cassette of hers at the Press Club in Calcutta, Banerjee said, ''Vajpayeeji is a fine person. It is because of him that we are still supporting the BJP-led government at the Centre.'' But in the same breath she added, ''We can't go on tolerating the humiliation from the BJP. Enough is enough.''

Banerjee informed that Defence Minister George Fernandes rang her up on Saturday night and requested her to come to Delhi to have a discussion as scheduled earlier. ''But I intimated Fernandes that it would not be possible for me to go to Delhi for discussions now.''

''I have also objected to the double standards of the Samata Party and this I have told Fernandes,'' she added.

She said, ''Bengal was the gateway to the entire east and north- eastern states of the country. If all the states can have different projects to improve their conditions, what is wrong if we ask for the same? We would go all out for implementation of the 'Bengal package'."

Asked if she would continue to support the present government at the Centre even if it did not implement the 'Bengal package', Banerjee said, ''We would have to think over it. There is no time now to discuss it or go to Delhi to have a discussion there before our meeting at Brigade Parade ground in Calcutta on February 10."

President of West Bengal unit of Indian National Trade Union Congresss and state Congress leader Subrata Mukherjee, who was also present at the function, said, ''Mamata was not hankering on joining the ministry from the very beginning. At the same time, Nitish Kumar was also not fit to be the railway minister. Mamata or her nominees should get the railways and some other important ministry,'' Mukherjee added.

Mukherjee also said Trinamul Congress should join the BJP- led government at the Centre. Mukherjee said, ''Once Trinamul supported the present government at the Centre, they should join the ministry as well. I don't support the dual role. Mamata should have joined the ministry much earlier,'' he said.

Asked whether his presence at the cassette release ceremony of Banerjee's had any significance, Mukherjee said, ''We have known each other for a very long time. So there is nothing wrong in joining Mamata's cassette release function.''

To another question on whether there was any possibility of Banerjee returning to Congress fold again, Mukherjee said, ''I do not think so. Distance from the BJP does not mean she is closer to the Congress.''

Earlier, at a well-attended function, Banerjee said writing poetry and songs for children was her passion. She said, ''Whenever I find time I love to write stories, poems and songs for children. In our political life also the children have shown us many ways. Though I'm too much pre-occupied with political work, I wrote these songs within a short span of time. What one can't do by long speech, he or she can do with a small song.''

UNI

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