Mamata Banerjee rejected to attend UPA's dinner

KOLKATA: Trinamool Congress chief and chief minister of West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee has rejected the invitation of Sonia Gandhi for a dinner on July 18 before the presidential election.

On behalf of Sonia Gandhi, Congress leader Ahmed Patel had called Mamata asking to join the dinner on July 18. However, the supreme chief of Trinamool, said a definite no. The negative is significant considering the participation of the Trinamool at the meeting of the UPA, on Saturday. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Mamata had asked to join this meeting and the latter decided to send the Railway Minister Mukul Roy attend.

Just as the vine policy had begun to show signs of melting ice between the two UPA allies, the refusal Mamata has taken things back to square one. Dinner was launched in support of UPA presidential candidate, Pranab Mukherjee. Members of the UPA and its allies have been invited for dinner.Trinamool sources said Mamata's refusal was only expected given their strong opposition to the candidacy of former finance minister of the Union. He also suggested that Congress and the Trinamool can forge an alliance of other, despite their "no" to Sonia Gandhi.

However, there are question marks considering a new resistance shown by the second largest ally of the UPA, the Trinamool Congress vis-à-vis the candidate for vice-president Hamid Ansari. Mamata does not want him to continue a second term and has its own candidate for the office, former Governor of Bengal Gopalkrishna Gandhi.