Congress leader Manas Bhuniya suggests Sonia Gandhi-Mamata Banerjee meeting to repair ties

PURULIA: A Congress leader today suggested intervention of Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee to arrest the drift in the relationship between the two allies.

Manas Bhuniya, a minister in West Bengal cabinet and former state Congress president, said "chiefs of both Congress and Trinamool Congress should sit together and discuss the matter".

Bhuniya told reporters on the sidelines of a programme here of his Micro and Small Scale Enterprises and Textiles Department as the two parties are partners in the state government, "open criticism of each other would harm both".

The ties between the two parties have come under a lot of stress as Trinamool Congress opposed the UPA government's move to bring FDI in multibrand retail, pension reform bill, Lokpal Bill in Rajya Sabha and Teesta water-sharing agreement with Bangladesh.

Bhuniya himself had a couple of days ago attacked Trinamool Congress for the state government's decision to rename Indira Bhavan after rebel poet Kazi Nazrul Islam.