Amar Singh and Mamata Banerjee

July 11: Mamata Banerjee today said she did not want the Manmohan Singh government to fall, her statement coming a few hours after Amar Singh told The Telegraph that they were in touch with each other.

“I don’t want an elected government to fall prematurely. Instead, it should complete its full term,” Mamata said at her Kalighat residence this afternoon.

She, however, declined to divulge whether she would vote in favour of the UPA government’s trust motion or against it or abstain.

“The premature fall of an elected government usually leads to chaos and political instability. It also causes inconvenience to people when an early election is imposed on them,” she added.

Trinamul sources said Mamata would be present in Calcutta on July 21 when the trust vote debate begins in the Lok Sabha. She will address a rally at Esplanade to commemorate the killing of 13 Youth Congress activists in July 1993. She is expected to announce her future plans at the rally.

“Didi may leave for Delhi either on the night of July 21 or the next morning since she is our main speaker for the rally at Esplanade,” said Trinamul youth leader Madan Mitra.

Asked if she would participate in the House on July 22 when the government seeks the trust vote, Mamata said: “Our options are open. But still I shall have to discuss the matter at the party forum.”

A few hours earlier, Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh had said in Delhi: “I have spoken to Mamata. She’s in touch with me and I with her. She’s upset with the Congress for not nominating Dinesh Trivedi (of Trinamul) to the Rajya Sabha. Pranab Mukherjee’s preference for a Left Front candidate caused the bitterness.”

Amar added: “She’s not particularly fond of (Priya Ranjan) Das Munshi either. But her dislike for Das Munshi is less compared with her political antagonism towards the Left. She will have to weigh her dislike of individual politicians against her own political survival in Bengal. It will be interesting to see what she does.”

Amar said his principle of not mixing “political equations with personal differences” was what had helped him sustain his relations with politicians such as Mamata. “We go back more than 20 years, and I have kept up my relations with her no matter what political stand she took,” he said.

The Samajwadi leader said he believed she would eventually vote for the UPA because “it will be difficult for her to be seen in the company of L.K. Advani and the Left at a time she is angling for the Muslim vote”.

Mamata seems to be waiting for a clearer picture to emerge in Delhi. The Trinamul leader said that she was still doubtful about the Congress’s “complete divorce” with the Left. “I am still keeping a watch on the developments. I cannot say that the Congress has totally divorced the CPM and its Left allies,” she said.