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Mamata keeps off meeting called by Buddhadeb

By Our Special Correspondent

KOLKATA, SEPT. 29. The Trinamool Congress MP, Mamata Banerjee, today boycotted a meeting of parliamentarians from West Bengal convened by the Chief Minister, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, to facilitate speedier clearance of development projects for the State.

"What is the use of holding such a meeting? There is virtually a joint venture of the Congress-CPI(M) at the Centre and the communists often say they hold the key to the UPA's survival,'' Partha Chatterjee, Trinamool general secretary, said.

Mr. Bhattacharjee had asked all MPs, both of the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha, to take part in today's meeting at Writers' Buildings, the State headquarters, to act as a pressure group of sorts on the Centre for a speedy clearance of the pending development projects.

The Left MPs apart, the meeting was attended by three Congress parliamentarians, Adhir Chowdhury, Mannan Hossain and Jayanata Bhattacharya. Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee and Water Resources Minister P.R. Das Munshi, both Lok Sabha members, could not do so because of pressing engagements. The Trinamool's Mamata Banerjee and Dinesh Trivedi, party's Rajya Sabha MP, stayed away from the meeting. "Let them (the Leftists) hold the meeting with 41 other MPs,'' Ms. Banerjee commented.

Remembering `insult'

Ms. Banerjee had told her aides in private that she would never set foot on the State headquarters as she was allegedly thrown out of it a few years ago when she had gone there to seek help for a rape victim.

"A letter from the Chief Minister cannot make me forget that insult,'' she is understood to have told her aides in private.

The other reason for not attending today's meeting was purely political, the Trinamool leaders close to Ms. Banerjee said.

"The party cannot be seen extending cooperation to the Leftists who have allegedly unleashed terror to eliminate the Opposition, especially the Trinamool.''

Mr. Chatterjee said the CPI(M), the leader of the State's ruling Left Front, had not bothered to respond to the Trinamool's request to call for an all-party meeting to discuss the "communist atrocities in Bengal.''

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Mamata keeps off meeting called by Buddhadeb

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