Dinesh Trivedi finally quit as Railway Minister on Sunday after speaking to Trinamool Congress chief and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. Mukul Roy is likely to take over as the Railway Minister, but Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee is likely to reply to the debate on the Railway Budget in Parliament.
"I spoke to Mamata to get her confirmation and she said that I should step down, it was the party's decision. I must thank the TMC, Mamata, the entire cabinet and the captain Manmohan Singh," Trivedi said on Sunday, ending the four days of drama over his resignation.
It seems to have made him a hero but his party sees it as defiance.
Moments after Dinesh Trivedi tabled the Rail Budget 2012, announcing minimal increase in rail fares, his party insisted on a rollback and his resignation.
Dinesh Trivedi's resignation comes as no surprise. His distancing from Mamata Bannerjee goes back to last year when he insisted on resigning in the wake of the Anna Hazare movement.
He is also perceived as being close to the Congress, using his proximity to some Congress leaders for taking on the Trinamool.
But Mamata's insistance on him to step down has undermined the Prime Minister's stature. As the head of the government, the Prime Minister has the discretion to choose his team, but this is just on paper.
In 2009, too, the Prime Minister was not keen to take A Raja in his team, but under threat of withdrawal by the DMK, he had to go back on his stand.
Sources say Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is not too keen on Mukul Roy as the Railway Minister, but again, with 19 MPs, it's tough for him to flex his muscles.
The lid is on the Mamata-Dinesh spat but it has given a handle to the Opposition to attack an already weakened UPA government.
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