Bengal minister fires first salvo at Mamata

The message from the Congress to its one-time alliance partner, the Trinamool Congress, was clear and loud during the Sunday's cabinet reshuffle.

By inducting Raiganj MP Deepa Dasmunsi, and Behrampore MP Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury — the two bitter critics of Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee — into the Council of Ministers, the party indicated that it was ready for a slugfest with the Trinamool in Bengal.

To corner Mamata Banerjee, who quit the UPA II government on the issue of FDI in retail, Adhir Chowdhury lost no time in attacking her. Immediately after the swearing-in ceremony, he challenged Mamata to try and dislodge the UPA II government. "The Parliament convenes on November 22 and I challenge Mamata Banerjee to bring a no-confidence motion in the Lok Sabha against the government. If she has the himmat (courage), let her do it. We will see to it that she is left with a red face,'' said Chowdhury, who has been made Minister of State for Railways.

Dasmunsi also sharpened her attack on the state government by saying her party would now strengthen its agitation against the Trinamool. "There are several issues. There is the issue of setting up AIIMS-like hospital at Raiganj which the state government has been opposing. We will now press the central government with the demand that the AIIMS-like hospital has to be set up in Raigunj itself,'' she added.

Mamata had been keen to shift the super-specialty hospital project out of Raiganj, the constituency of Dasmunsi.

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