Mamata absent in the morning, present in the evening

Mamata, who skipped a cabinet meeting on Tuesday morning, was reportedly annoyed over UPA's echoing of the West Bengal government's contention that the recent train derailment in the state was the "handiwork of the Maoists."

However, the minister, who attended the UPA report card meeting later in the evening, maintained in public the stance that the Trinamool Congress and the Congress had no differences. 

“We (TMC and Congress) are absolutely comfortable. I have great respect for the prime minister,” she said after skipping the cabinet meeting convened to decide  President's Rule in Jharkhand.

Mamata said she did not attend the meeting as it was "only for Jharkhand...a very simple meeting and she was doing some serious job here." Asked whether  she will attend UPA's report card meeting, she said: "Yes, of course,I will be going there. Some people are spreading rumours. They want to create some confusion between the two parties but I can assure you there is no difference between the Trinamool Congress and the government," she said.

Even as Home Minister P Chidambaram insisted on Monday that the needle of suspicion on the derailment of the Jnaneswari Express in Midnapore is pointing at Maoists, Mamata Banerjee, who is locked into a political battle with the CPM in West Bengal, has been claiming that Saturday's accident that claimed 148 lives is part of a wider political conspiracy.

She denied being upset over the Centre's decision not to call for a CBI probe on the derailment, which she has been calling for. “I have good relations with Chidambaram. I have no quarrel with the home minister. We can discuss this. It is not a problem. We asked the home minister to do it. The government will do it according to the procedure,” Mamata Banerjee, who had also stayed away from cabinet meetings in the past, said.