21 Jan 2010
WHY MAMATA ABSTAINED FROM FUNERAL?
By R Rajagopalan
NEW DELHI: Railway Minister Mamata Bannerjee may throw up new tantrums against Congress as she is angry with Sonia Gandhi refusing to travel in her car to CPI(M) veteran Jyoti Basu's funeral in Kolkata.
She wanted Sonia to go with her to the funeral to show that she matters in West Bengal politics but the Special Protection Group (SPG) men who accompanied Sonia Gandhi rejected her proposal.
When politely told that Sonia Gandhi being a SPG protectee will travel only by a SPG car as per the blue book, Mamata suggested that she was ready to accompany the Congress President in one of the eight SPG cars lined up in Kolkata.
Trinamul Congress sources said Mamata lost her temper when a SPG officer told her that nobody else can be allowed to travel with Sonia Gandhi as that is their drill. She suspects that Sonia Gandhi did not want to be seen with her and the SPG men were acting only on Sonia Gandhi's orders.
The SPG sources said Mamata was annoyed as she shouted at the SPG personnel that she is a union minister and not an "unwanted person" whom they want to push away as if she is a security risk to Sonia Gandhi. Nobody waited to reply when she asked: "Ask Soniaji. How can she refuse to take me in her car?"
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