Bengal Congress ministers to resign today

KOLKATA: All six Congress ministers — two among them holding cabinet portfolios in the Mamata Banerjee government — will submit their resignations to the chief minister on Saturday. Pradesh Congress president Pradip Bhattacharya said the party would firm up the decision in the meeting of state Congress office-bearers and ministers on Saturday morning.
The Pradesh Congress chief stepped up his ante against the Mamata government on Friday, saying that the government is an autocratic one and by blocking FDI in Bengal it is depriving the state of economic development, like what the Left Front did by raising its voice against introduction of computers.
Bhattacharya told reporters, "In consultation with the AICC, we have decided that all Congress ministers in the Mamata Banerjee government will tender their resignations on Saturday. Manas Bhunian (state irrigation minister) has been directed to seek an appointment with the chief minister for doing the needful, possibly Saturday evening itself."
Bhattacharya said the party would play the role of an opposition in the assembly and will take a call on the other modality — to call on Governor M K Narayanan to submit their letter of withdrawal of support — in the state Congress meeting on Saturday. "It is expected that since ours was a pre-poll alliance (in the 2011 assembly elections), we have to submit a letter of withdrawal of support to the governor," he said. All the six state ministers and Pradesh Congress office-bearers will be present at Saturday's meet.
Bhattacharya, in a scathing attack on the government, said there wasn't any reason for Trinamool Congress to part ways with the UPA-II. "When the farmers were not getting the minimum support price and Congress workers were being attacked statewide, we didn't take such a decision (to sever ties in Bengal). We had a commitment to people. Trinamool had failed in their commitment and now they will have to answer," he said.
On June 15, Congress legislative party leader Md Sohrab, after a stormy CLP meeting on the backdrop of political mudslinging over the presidential polls, had written to Congress president Sonia Gandhi saying they are no longer comfortable being Trinamool's alliance partner in the state. The letter said Mamata's "unethical behaviour and attitude" on the presidential polls should be condemned.
"This is nothing new. The political development in Delhi had its bearing on the decision today, but it wasn't a sudden decision. We were uncomfortable in this government and feel relieved today," Bhattacharya said.