New Delhi, Mar 15 (CNN-IBN): In a big embarrassment for the UPA government on the day the Railway Budget was presented, the Prime Minister has agreed to Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee's demand to replace Dinesh Trivedi as the Railway Minister.
The Prime Minister has also agreed to Mamata's pick for the post - Trinamool leader Mukul Roy. Sources say that the Congress may also agree for a partial rollback in train fares.
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee spoke to Mamata Banerjee, requesting her to wait till the Union Budget is presented but Mamata insisted on removal of Dinesh. Congress said it is her choice to choose Railway Minister.
Earlier, putting a question mark on the fate of the Railway Budget, Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday asked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to remove Dinesh Trivedi as the Railway Minister after he took the bold and politically suicidal decision of an across-the-board increase in passenger fares, the first since 2002.
Trivedi, a Trinamool Congress MP from Barrackpur in West Bengal, came under scathing attack from his own party soon after he presented his maiden Railway Budget in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday in which he proposed to mop up an additional Rs 4,000 crore for spending on railway safety by increasing passenger fares across all classes.
The tone and tenor of Trinamool MPs, who launched a scathing attack on Trivedi, and Mamata Banerjee declaring that she would not allow the fare hike made it clear that the Railway Minister's survival in the Cabinet was hanging by a thread.
Mamata Banerjee, always keen to project her pro-poor and street fighter image, sent a fax to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh asking him to remove Trivedi as the Railway Minister and suggested the name of Trinamool Congress's Rajya Sabha MP and Minister of State for Shipping, Mukul Roy as his replacement.
"Yes, I have written to the Prime Minister seeking his replacement with Mukul Roy, another Union Minister," Mamata Banerjee, a former railway minister herself, said. She had earlier declared that the fare hike was justified and she would not allow it. She also summoned Trivedi to Kolkata.
After Mamata's fax was received by the Prime Minister, the Congress Core Group held an emergency meeting where it was decided that Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee would speak to the West Bengal Chief Minister on the issue.
Mukerjee spoke to Mamata and requested her to wait till the Union Budget was presented in the Lok Sabha on March 16. However, Mamata insisted on the removal of Trivedi from the Railway Ministry following which Mukherjee assured her that her choice would be made the Railway Minister.
Sources said that the Congress would want that even if Mamata does not allow Trivedi to go ahead with the Railway budget, then the Ministers of State of Railways, KH Muniappa and Bharatsinh Solanki, could go ahead.
The Congress-led United Progressive Alliance Government is also working on a contingency plan in case Trinamool Congress withdraws its support. Sources said that the Congress was confident that the party would be able to get the support of the Samajwadi Party.
Congress had also not taken any decision on Trivedi and was not in favour of complete rollback of passenger fare hike, sources said.
However, Mukul Roy told CNN-IBN that he has got no such information from the party. "I have no information that my name has been given for Railway minister," he said.
The West Bengal Chief Minister's action came late on Wednesday night after Trivedi's stout defence of his proposal for the increase in rail fares. The 61-year-old Railway Minister maintained that whatever he had done was in the interest of the railways and the country and that he was not worried if he was stripped of his portfolio.
While pointing out that passenger fares were subsidising freight rates and so they need to be rationalised, the Railway Minister increased the passenger fares by 2 paise per km for suburban and ordinary second class; 3 paise per km for mail/express second class; 5 paise per km for sleeper class; 10 paise per km for AC Chair Car, AC 3 tier and First Class; 15 paise per km for AC 2 tier and 30 paise per km for AC I.
The fares would be rounded off to the next nearest five rupees and the minimum fares and platform tickets would now cost Rs. 5.
Trinamool Congress, which has been toeing a populist line on issues like petrol price hike, asked him to rollback the increase and put him on notice that it would suggest another name to the Prime Minister as his replacement in the Railway Ministry. The party also threatened to move cut motions on the issue and had decided to meet the Prime Minister to press for rollback.
Meanwhile, Trinamool Congress MPs, after launching a scathing attack on Trivedi over the fare hike, are also slated to meet the Prime Minister demanding a rollback. Trnamool has also planned to move a motion in Parliament against the fare hike.
The hike in passenger fares by Trivedi had been severely criticised by Trinamool MPs – from spokesperson Derek O'Brien, to MP Sudip Bandopadhyay and Mamata Banerjee herself.
Trivedi in his defence said that he delivered the budget keeping the needs of the nation first, and then his party and state. He also added that he did not consult his party or Mamata while finalising the budget. Mamata also followed up with a public declaration that she had not been consulted by Trivedi.
Trivedi found himself in a piquant situation immediately after he presented his maiden Railway budget in which he proposed an across-the-board hike in passenger fares to mop up an additional Rs 4,000 crore for spending on railway safety.
On a cue from Trinamool Congress boss party MPs attacked the hike and demanded a rollback in keeping with her populist politics which has resulted in repeated trouble for the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance Government over issues such as Foreign Direct Investment in retail and petrol price hike.