Mukul Roy to quit, India set to get 3rd Rail Min in 1 yr

With Mamata Banerjee's men leaving the Manmohan Singh team on Friday, six key positions will fall vacant. The most important among these is the Cabinet rank of Railway Minister. Sources say the Congress is likely to keep Railway after Mukul Roy quits.

This means the Railway will soon have a new minister, the third in a year. Current Railway Minister Mukul Roy was appointed in March after Mamata made Dinesh Trivedi step down for increasing passenger fares without her consent.

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The Railway Minister shift has largely been driven by Mamata Banerjee in the last one year. When Dinesh Trivedi increased passenger fares in March 2012, Trivedi's party chief Mamata Banerjee was the first to oppose it. Mamata said that Trivedi had kept the party in the dark about hike in passenger fare.

Mamata's anger resulted in Trivedi's ouster as the Railway Minister. Mamata's trusted man Mukul Roy replaced Trivedi and immediately announced a rollback of the hikes announced by Trivedi.

It's back to square one for the Railway Ministry as an angry Mamata Banerjee has once again asked his minister to quit, but this time over diesel price hike, LPG cap and FDI in retail. It now remains to be seen who really drives the Railway Ministry ahead.