NEW DELHI, 11 August — Former railway minister and Trinamool Congress president, Mamata Banerjee announced her return to National Democratic Alliance (NDA) yesterday. She had left the alliance and aligned with the Congress party in the hope of sweeping the assembly elections in West Bengal in May.
But the Left Front’s victory in the polls left Mamata without any power at home and at the center. Following her party’s defeat in West Bengal, it did not take her long to start distancing herself from the Congress and make moves to return to the NDA.
However, Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee was fairly critical of her return to the NDA till of late. Noises made by the Shiv Sena (another NDA ally) have, however changed Vajpayee’s stance toward Mamata’s party.
At present, the prime minister would prefer Trinamool to Shiv Sena in the alliance (of late, a Sena member had levied charges in the parliament regarding the role of Prime Minister’s Office in the UTI scam).
