It’s Bengal over Delhi on Mamata’s priority list

Trinamool Congress chief and railway minister Mamata Banerjee made it clear on Tuesday that her assignment at the Rail Bhavan in New Delhi was of lesser importance to her political interests in West Bengal.

Mamata said she was least bothered about opposition and UPA allies’ attacks over her prolonged absence from New Delhi. She said she would prefer to spend more time at her home (read Kolkata) then elsewhere (read Delhi). “Why shall I stay in Delhi? Bengal is my motherland and not Delhi. My house is not Dilli ka laddu. Since the parliament is not in session now, I do not have any work in Delhi,” Mamata said in Kolkata.

She described opposition and UPA allies’ complaints of her long absence from Delhi as “a CPI(M) conspiracy”. “CPI(M) is trying its best so that I am pushed to Delhi. But till my last breath, I will live in Bengal,” Mamata said.

Political analysts feel Mamata is buying time till the 2011 Bengal assembly elections. In case the poll mandate goes in her favour, in no time she will pack her bags from Delhi.