Meet Union minister for West Bengal

NEW DELHI: Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee, who faces Opposition charges of being an “absentee” minister, may have added fuel to the fire.

In an attempt to reach out to the voters ahead of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation polls, the Union minister justified her periods of absence from the National Capital by saying Kolkata was her home, not Delhi.

“Delhi is not my home. When there is no Parliament session, why should I stay in Delhi? Kolkata is my homeland,” she said at a public meeting in Kolkata on Monday night while campaigning for her Trinamool Congress candidates.

However, the railway minister was missing even during the Parliament session while the train drivers’ strike in Mumbai recently had kicked up a storm in the House.

“India is my birth place and Bengal is my motherland. I will live in Bengal as long as I live,” she said. The Left, her main rivals in the state, and the main Opposition party BJP have been attacking her for her absence from the National Capital and “neglecting” her duties as railway minister.

“It is a ploy by CPM to send me to Delhi. No one can force out Mamata,” the Trinamool Congress chief said. A day after the stampede at New Delhi railway station, CPM had accused Ms Banerjee of ignoring her duty as railway minister to focus on the West Bengal civic polls.

The CPM had also sought an explanation from the prime minister and his cabinet to spell out the justification for her absence for a mere civic election.