NEW DELHI: It remains to be seen whether Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi’s 15 minutes of fame would cost him his political career - or even end his stint with the Trinamool. Days of speculation that Trivedi may be eyeing a slot in the Congress and wanted to leverage his new-found profile as a pro-reform minister to that end have not borne fruit.
A state Congress heavyweight said: “There is no way Trivedi can be accommodated in the West Bengal Congress. We have no Rajya Sabha seat to spare.” (Trivedi is a Lok Sabha MP from the state.)
Of course the Congress leader wouldn’t admit it, but it is an underlying fact that one can’t take an open anti-Mamata stance and make good in Bengal politics at least at this juncture.
Apart from the politics, it’s the Constitutional untenability of his position that made Trivedi relent at this point. Had he stuck to his guns and insisted on giving the reply as minister, he would have very likely faced the farcical situation of either having to vote against his own budget or facing disqualification for not obeying a party whip to do so.