(From top) Mamata, Pranab and Mausam

Calcutta, Jan. 1: Mamata Banerjee has called up senior Congress leaders in Delhi to say she is miffed at the party’s intensified protests in the state despite assurances that Indira Bhavan would not be renamed.

“Mamatadi has taken the matter up with Delhi. She is angry with Congress leaders who have been hitting the streets despite our assurances that the government would not name Indira Bhavan after Nazrul Islam ,” said a Trinamul general secretary.

The leaders who the chief minister has called include Union finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, he added.

Though Mukherjee was not available for comment, a party source said from Delhi that Mamata “has expressed her anguish over a section of Bengal Congress workers’ sustained agitation over the Indira Bhavan issue”.

The source said the leadership preferred a peaceful settlement. “We have asked Pradip Bhattacharya (Bengal PCC chief) to seek an appointment with the chief minister to peacefully settle the matter because agitations against the government, with which we are associated, would send wrong signals to the party ranks and people across the state,” he added.

In the last three days, Congress workers have protested in front of Writers’ Buildings, organised a sit-in at central Calcutta and blocked trains at Basirhat.

State panchayat minister Subrata Mukherjee clarified the government had no intention of dishonouring Indira Gandhi by renaming the bhavan after Nazrul Islam.

“We want a museum and a research centre on Nazrul Islam at Indira Bhavan. We are not going to rename Indira Bhavan after the poet. I don’t understand why the Congress workers are unnecessarily agitating over such a trivial issue,” he said.

Mamata had announced on Wednesday that Indira Bhavan would be named after Nazrul, sparking protests from the state Congress.

But on Friday, Congress’s Manas Bhunia said the chief minister had “assured” him that the name would not be changed.

However, the Congress leadership has insisted the government issue a circular clarifying that the Indira Bhavan would not be renamed.

“We won’t go by what Trinamul ministers are saying. Let the government issue a circular,” said state Congress president Bhattacharya.

The Youth Congress, led by Mausam Noor, has already lined up a demonstration for Tuesday under the Indira Gandhi statue opposite Birla planetarium. Raiganj MP Deepa Das Munshi is likely to join the protest.

The Congress’s minority cell will also organise a demonstration a week after Tuesday’s sit-in. “Though Nazrul belongs to the minority, we are opposed to the government’s appeasement to us at the cost of Indiraji,” warned S.M.S. Haidar, the chief of the Congress’ minority cell.

Trinamul entrant

Wilfred D’Souza, a former Congress chief minister of Goa, joined the Trinamul Congress on Sunday, the move suggesting that Mamata Banerjee’s party has started spreading to the western parts of the country.