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The Trinamool Congress said on Tuesday that it was because of Deputy Prime Minister Lal Kishenchand Advani that the party was not able to rejoin the National Democratic Alliance.
"We are out of the NDA because of the government's insistence on bifurcating Eastern Railway, which will be a hefty blow to West Bengal. The strange thing is that the prime minister [Atal Bihari Vajpayee] sympathises with us, but not the deputy prime minister who has now his own sphere of influence," a Trinamool MP said on condition of anonymity.
"When the two tallest leaders in the NDA are fighting for supremacy, issues like our party rejoining it are shunted to the backburner. However, we are still hopeful," he said.
Another Trinamool MP, Dr Nitish Sengupta, said that on August 17 party chief Mamata Banerjee had met Vajpayee to find out whether his government would make some concessions regarding the bifurcation of the Eastern Railway.
"She just had tea (at the prime minister's residence in New Delhi) and Vajpayeeji asked her to apprise Advaniji of the intricacies of the matter," Dr Sengupta said.
He said he met Advani and the latter asked why the Trinamool had got entangled in the bifurcation issue.
"I told him that we did not have any option but to agitate against the bifurcation of Eastern Railway. He did not reply," he said.
On August 13, Banerjee had declared that the party's working committee had decided that it would stay out of the NDA till the bifurcation issue was resolved to its satisfaction.
The Trinamool chief had criticised Advani in Kolkata last week for resisting any changes in the proposed bifurcation.
She had hoped that the prime minister would come to her party's rescue, but he did not oblige.
Bharatiya Janata Party sources said, "The new dispensation under Advaniji wants its presence felt in the party's and government's affairs."
"Call it power struggle or whatever. The fact is, there are new initiatives by the new team and Advaniji is the guiding spirit. He makes weekly visits to the party headquarters," they said.
"Advaniji has been very powerful right from the beginning. He is there in all important decisions of the party and the government," they said.
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