Mamata apologises to Siliguri electorate

Visiting Siliguri for the first time after Congress and Left teamed up to form the Siliguri Municipal Corporation board, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee apologised to the electorate on Sunday and termed as "treachery" the recent act of her alliance partner.

The Railway Minister also refrained from directly naming Congress for taking Left support to win the Siliguri mayoral election in a public meeting held to offer the apology as her party could not form the SMC board. "I have come here to beg an apology as we failed to fulfill your aspirations because of the treachery of our friends," she said. "It is the fault of our alliance partner and it is now their problem how to maintain the spirit of the alliance," she told the meeting, putting at rest the speculation that she would go at hammer and tongs with the Congress.

All the elected Trinamool councillors of the SMC, the party president Subroto Baxi, Opposition leader in the state Assembly Partha Chatterjee and all party district presidents in north Bengal lined up behind Mamata in two rows with folded hands to apologise to the gathering. "We all treat the Communist Party of India-Marxist as enemy number one and in no case can we compromise with them and in no situation can we enjoy power with their support," she said.

Mamata said her party had always kept promises and never failed on commitments. She said her party was supporting the UPA at the centre as per commitments made in the election manifesto and she would abide by it.