Title - All eyes on Mamata as TMC leaders meet to take 'hard decision' - The Times of India

KOLATA: All eyes are on the Trinamool Congress parliamentary committee meeting at Town Hall in Kolkata on Tuesday where party chief Mamata Banerjee will take the "hard decision" she had announced in case the Congress-led UPA government refuses to yield to her rollback demand of the reform measures - hike in diesel prices, cap on subsidized LPG cylinders and FDI entry in multi-brand retail.

Railway minister Mukul Roy has already reached Town Hall with Trinamool MPs Tapas Pal and Satabdi Roy while others are on their way to the meeting. Chief minister Mamata Banerjee is staying put at the Writers' Buildings, while Trinamool leaders keep waiting for the last minute calibration of reform measures following Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's meeting with Congress president Sonia Gandhi in Dehi. However, according to Trinamool insiders, no communication from Delhi has reached Kolkata from Sonia Gandhi's political secretary Ahmed Patel as yet, raising eyebrows in the Trinamool camp.

Pressure is building on the Trinamool chief over her future course that includes pulling out of the UPA ministry, if not a pullout from the UPA. The Trinamool camp badly needs an escape route in the form of a partial rollback on the LPG front at least to break the political stalemate. Else, the Trinamool chief will have no option but to take the ultimate step.

Mamata Banerjee has her compulsions in West Bengal politics as well. Leader of the Opposition in the assembly Surjya Kanta Mishra said on Tuesday that he feared that the Trinamool sound and fury over the reform route will end in a whimper with Mamata Banerjee succumbing to the Congress pressure as she did during the presidential polls.

Caught in a bind the Trinamool chief has invited senior state ministers to the party's parliamentary committee meeting at Town Hall. Taking the cue, finance minister Amit Mitra has declined Chidambarm's offer to come to Delhi on Tuesday and discuss about the financial package for Bengal that was due in September.