Mamata Feels she is undermined by UPA

Mamata Banerjee takes a dig at Left parties on Women Reservation Bill

2010-03-10

Union Railway Minister and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday charged the Left parties of taking undue credit for the successful passage of the Women Reservation Bill in the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday. "Why is the Left parties taking undue credit for the bill," said Banerjee. "We boycotted the Bill because there was no floor coordination," she added. Mamata Banerjee, however, indicated that she was not totally against the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) with respect to the Bill. "We are still backing the Bill. But minority problems must be addressed," she claimed. The Trinamool Congress on Tuesday boycotted the Rajya Sabha vote on the women's bill, railing bitterly against the Congress but keeping its eyes firmly locked on Bengal politics. Mamata Banerjee demanded sub-quotas for Muslim women candidates, seeking to consolidate her support among the community and trying to deny the CPM an opportunity to crow too much on the bill passed on Tuesday. Her pitch for the sub-quota is also being seen as an answer to the ten percent job quota announced by the Left Front government in Bengal for disadvantaged backward-class Muslims. The Trinamool parliamentary party has decided to meet on March 15 to chalk out its strategy for any vote on the bill in the Lok Sabha. A top party source said abstaining in the Lok Sabha was a "very real possibility". But even if it refrains from opposing the bill in the Lok Sabha, Trinamool is likely to use the discussion in the Lower House to articulate its demand for Muslim sub-quotas.