New Delhi, March 9: The Trinamul Congress today boycotted the Rajya Sabha vote on the women’s bill, railing bitterly against the Congress but keeping its eyes firmly locked on Bengal politics.

Mamata Banerjee demanded sub-quotas for Muslim women candidates, seeking to consolidate her support among the community and trying to deny the CPM an opportunity to crow too much on the bill passed today.

Her pitch for the sub-quota is also being seen as an answer to the 10 per cent job quota announced by the Left Front government in Bengal for disadvantaged backward-class Muslims.

“I am upset, very upset,” Mamata told journalists outside Parliament, complaining about how her party was not consulted about the vote while the Congress took Brinda Karat “into confidence and how the bill was bulldozed through”.

“The democratic process has been bulldozed, we cannot support the bill in this form,” she added.

“It appears Brinda Karat and the CPM have been taken into confidence. I am upset. Lalu (Prasad) and we are government allies. We don’t want to bulldoze the democratic process,” Mamata said.

She added that “we are shocked and sad that the Congress decided to bring the legislation to vote despite an assurance from the Prime Minister that he would hold an all-party meeting before the vote in the Rajya Sabha”. The Congress did not appear too perturbed about Mamata’s stand, though it is worried about the fallout on its own image among the minority community.

In an interview to NDTV, Sonia Gandhi this evening chose to stress on Mamata’s support for the idea of reservation for women. “I was told Mamata was very enthusiastic. I have not spoken to Mamata yet,” Sonia told the channel.

Mamata had in the morning gate-crashed a Congress huddle attended by the Prime Minister and Sonia but said little apart from repeating her demand for an all-party meeting.

After lunching with the Samajwadi and RJD chiefs, she met leaders of several major Muslim organisations, including the Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind — the country’s largest body of ulemas — and the All India Muslim Personal Law Board.

She promised that Trinamul would press the government to tweak the bill to include sub-quotas for Muslims. “She assured us she would not support the bill in its current form,” Jamiat secretary Mujtaba Farooq said.

At an unscheduled meeting of the Trinamul parliamentary party in Mamata’s Parliament chamber, the party decided to boycott the Rajya Sabha vote and openly criticise the Congress.

The two Trinamul Rajya Sabha MPs, Swapan Sadhan Bose and junior shipping minister Mukul Roy, drove away from the Parliament complex before the vote. During the voting, Mamata stayed put in her chamber.

The Trinamul parliamentary party has decided to meet on March 15 to chalk out its strategy for any vote on the bill in the Lok Sabha. A top party source said abstaining in the Lok Sabha was a “very real possibility”.

But even if it refrains from opposing the bill in the Lok Sabha, Trinamul is likely to use the discussion in the Lower House to articulate its demand for Muslim sub-quotas.

By endorsing Lalu Prasad’s and Mulayam Singh Yadav’s demand for Muslim sub-quotas, Trinamul risks embarrassing the ruling coalition.

Torn between two compulsions -- not to appear anti-minority and not to appear opposed to women’s reservation ---- the party is yet to decide how it would act if the bill is brought to the Lok Sabha.