Cong bandh in Bengal on Friday

KOLKATA: Congress has called a 12-hour Bangla bandh on Friday in protest against the attack on its MLAs by CPM supporters at Mangalkot in Burdwan district on Wednesday.

But there has been some confusion among Trinamool Congress over the issue of taking active part during Friday's Congress-sponsored bandh. "The Congress is our election partner. They have called a bandh. But we don't have any direct role to play in this regard," Trinamool Congress leader and party MLA Subrata Bakshi said on Thursday.

Mr Bakshi's observation suggests clearly that Trinamool Congress will not be on the streets to make the bandh a success. Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee is now the railway minister.

For the past few months, Mamata had been discouraging any wildcat strikes and bandhs and had also asked her leaders and party supporters not to go for bandhs and strikes.

On Wednesday, Mamata had told reporters in Delhi that her party would give moral support to Congress once it calls any bandh in West Bengal to protest the attacks on its MLAs.

But her leaders in Kolkata are apparently not too interested in making this Congress-sponsored bandh a success. Even though the two opposition parties had fought the Lok Sabha elections jointly, a different approach of the two towards the Mangalkot issue was very clear in the state assembly on Thursday.