Immediately after Banerjee had announced the decision of withdrawing support from the alliance last evening, AICC general secretary Janardan Dwivedi said Congress still considers Banerjee a "valued colleague", a refrain that continued even today.
This is part of a well-crafted strategy of the Congress, which was endoresed by party chief Sonia Gandhi as well the Core Group meeting presided by her with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh by her side, sources said.
Notably, the AICC today cancelled at the last minute a media briefing scheduled in the afternoon. Dwivedi merely said that attempts to contact Banerjee have not succeeded.
Finance Minister P Chidambaram made a statement in the evening reiterating Government's position on the issue.
The ruling party feels that it should refrain from attacking Mamata, even if there is no agreement with her party on these issues which are related with public sentiments, they said.
The party is of the view that the parting, if it is inevitable, should be as dignified as can be at least from the Congress side and it will suffice to say that the two sides could not agree on a particular policy, the sources said, adding the Congress President is not to be in favour of a war of words with TMC.
"No personal attack and no roll back" seems to be the catchline of Congress on the issue.
After a meeting of Group of Ministers on media, Chidambaram told reporters, "I don't know why you guys are hung up on that one word rollback. These issues (decisions) were taken after the most careful consideration. They stand."
