TC chief Mamata in Delhi; to meet Sonia tomorrow

Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee arrived in New Delhi leading a team of 19 newly-elected MPs amid speculation that her party is likely to get some major portfolios like the Railways.

Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee arrived in New Delhi on Tuesday night leading a team of 19 newly-elected MPs amid speculation that her party is likely to get some major portfolios like the Railways.

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Banerjee, who has maintained that she would not bargain for any ministerial position, would meet UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday at the meeting of Congress and its pre-poll allies.

Speculation is rife that Trinamool Congress, which made inroads into CPI(M)'s red citadel of Bengal, was likely to get at least two Cabinet berths and three Ministers of State.

Besides Railways, talk is that the Ministries which could go to her party include Coal, which she once held, and Steel as also a Minister of State position in the Union Home Ministry.

Though there are several new-comers among the 19 Lok Sabha MPs' group and two Rajya Sabha members, leaders like Sudip Bandopadhyay, Dinesh Trivedi, Mukul Roy, Sultan Ahmed and Gobinda Chandra Naskar have legislative experience.

Accusing the CPI(M) of unleashing "terror" in Bengal, Banerjee has said the election results were a "no-confidence motion" against the Left Front government, but had refused to comment whether she would prefer assembly elections to be held ahead of 2011 when it is originally scheduled.

She has also gone on record that Trinamool wanted a stable, secular government at the Centre to work for its full five-year term.