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Tara Shankar Sahay in New Delhi
Bharatiya Janata Party general secretary and chief spokesman Arun Jaitley on Tuesday expressed optimism that Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee's differences with Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee on her induction into the Union Cabinet would be resolved soon.
"She (Mamata) has raised a certain issue. The National Democratic Alliance leadership and the prime minister are talking to her. We are hopeful that concerns on both sides will be addressed," Jaitley told reporters at the BJP headquarters in New Delhi.
The Trinamool chief so far has refused to accept any portfolio other than the railways, which is with senior Samata Party leader Nitish Kumar.
BJP sources said after being persuaded by the prime minister's emissaries, Mamata had indicated her willingness to accept the surface transport and shipping ministry.
However, she is insisting on a written assurance from Vajpayee that Nistish Kumar would not be allowed to bifurcate the Eastern Railway. There are many crucial railway projects in Mamata's home state of West Bengal that would be adversely affected if the Eastern Railway is bifurcated.
However, Nitish Kumar, who belongs to Bihar, believes that the prime minister's office would have to give more importance to his home state because it has a greater representation in the NDA than West Bengal.
Both Kumar and Mamata have been consistently at loggerheads over the railway portfolio. This is partly because Mamata, when she was the railway minister, had taken away several railway projects earmarked for Bihar.
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