Rail Budget 2012-13: Will Dinesh Trivedi lose his job for hiking fares?

Soon after Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi announced fare hikes in his maiden Railway Budget speech, he stirred the hornet's nest aka Trinamul Congress which may cost him his job. It is not known if he had kept his boss Mamata Banerjee under loop, but two key TMC members Sudip Bandopadhyay and Derek O'Brien have raised an objection saying the decision to hike fares were Trivedi's own.

Mamata Banerjee is known to have opposed all moves to raise fares or prices, but it is difficult to comprehend that she was kept in the dark as far as hiking Railway fares was concerned. Experts say it may be an orchestrated drama on behalf of the party. But in an exclusive conversation with CNN-IBN, Mamata Banerjee said the party was not consulted and a decision on Dinesh Trivedi will be taken up by the parliamenatry board.

It all started with Mr Brien tweeting "What's up with fare hikes" while Bandopadhyay alleged that party was not consulted at all. TMC sources said there was a pressure from finance minister Pranab Mukherjee to hike fares and now the party may ask Trivedi to rollback hikes. In his defence, the Railway minister said he had taken a conscious decision for the benefit of the country. "