Kolkata / New Delhi:
On Wednesday, the Railway Minister had threatened to resign from the UPA if joint forces were not pulled out of Maoist-hit areas of Bengal. Today, Mamata Banerjee trained her guns on the Congress over another thorny issue -- price rise.
Mamata Banerjee was silent on rising prices till now. But after putting the UPA under pressure on the joint forces issue yesterday, she distanced herself today from its failure to control prices.
"Prices are sky high. Onion at Rs 70 per kilogram. Though we are in the UPA, we are not consulted when prices are raised of diesel and petrol. That's why we have said many times there should be a coordination committee, a monitoring committee," Mamata Banerjee said.
While the Trinamool chief fired her salvo from Kolkata, a team of her party's top leaders met the Prime Minister and urged him to curb the cost of onions. With Assembly elections now just months away, the last thing the Trinamool needs is blame for UPA's lapses.
"The Government should set aside all other matter and first tackle the price rise issue, " Sudip Bandopadhyay, a Trinamool MP said after meeting the Prime Minister.
Assembly polls are barely four months away and Mamata wants the Centre to get tough with the state government. The Trinamool also wants to avoid any blame for issues that affect the voters most - rising prices.