Asia Bizz: The Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee finally got what she wanted, when party leader Mukul Roy was sworn as the Railways Minister at the Rashtrapati Bhavan, Indian on March 20, 2012. Roy has been brought in place of Dinesh Trivedi, who resigned on March 18, 2012.
Earlier, Mukul Roy was the Minister of State for Shipping and is also a close aide of Mamata Banerjee. Reports say that Roy was the first choice for the Railways position last year, which Mamata had vacated when she took over as the chief minister of West Bengal in May 2011.
Trivedi was highly appreciated by the Prime Minister as well as the Cabinet colleagues for his bold 2012 Budget in which he announced a nominal increase in the train passenger fares. This was the first increase in the fares in nine years.
But the move did not do down well with the Trinamool Congress chief Banerjee, who demanded his removal; and last week, Banerjee promptly announced Roy as the Railways minister which was much before Trivedi had stepped down. Banerjee said that Mukul Roy will be the next Railways Minister, and he has been the Trinamool MP for six years.
