Shifting allegiance, travel mode

When Mamata Banerjee was the railway minister during the NDA regime, she travelled only by trains. This time, as her political allegiance has shifted from the BJP to the Congress, her travel pattern has also changed. Now, Banerjee travels only by plane between Delhi and Kolkata. “It saves time,” points out a close aide of Banerjee. While her predecessor Lalu Prasad was a frequent traveller in the railway minister’s special “salon car” (two special coaches for exclusive use of the railway minister) and used it more than 300 times during his tenure, Banerjee is yet to travel in these coaches.