Armed with bypoll wins, Mamata changes tack in Parliament: 'Won't allow Congress...'

The Trinamool Congress has clearly indicated that it is no longer comfortable with the Congress party playing the 'big brother' in the Opposition camp and has put in place its own strategy for Parliament that is different from the Congress wants Opposition MPs to raise.

Soon after the Trinamool Congress swept the bypolls in Kolkata, winning all 6 Assembly constituencies where byelections were held, Mamata Banerjee convened a meeting of the party's national executive in Kolkata that coincided with a strategy meeting of Opposition parties called by Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge in Delhi ahead of the onset of the Winter Session of Parliament.

Some strategic calls taken by Mamata during the meeting suggest that the Trinamool Congress may have drifted too far away for the Congress' comfort. At the meeting, Mamata made it abundantly clear that the MPs of the TMC will raise issues pertinent to West Bengal instead of being party to the agenda set by the Congress.

A report by CNN-News18 suggests that Mamata has outlined the issues raised by Trinamool MPs which include price rise, the Centre’s alleged apathy towards Bengal, unemployment and the North East and Manipur violence, among others.