NEW DELHI/KOLKATA, Sept 19:
Prospects of a rapprochment between the UPA and Trinamool Congress which has announced that it will quit the ruling coalition on Friday receded today with the Government categorically ruling out any rollback of its decisions on FDI, diesel and LPG cylinders.
Actually, Trinamool Congress supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who had dramatically announced yesterday that her six Ministers would resign from the Manmohan Singh Government on Friday and she will no longer support the Government, stepped up her attack on the Congress party.
“I will stick to my position, come what may…The (TMC) Ministers will tender their resignations,” she said adding there will be no compromise on people’s issue like FDI in retail.
Rejecting Finance Minister P Chidambaram’s statement in Delhi this morning, Banerjee said that nobody from Delhi contacted her before or after the Centre took the decisions to hike diesel price, cap supply of subsidised cylinders and allow FDI in retail.
“Minimum 24 cylinders should be given to a family in a year. How many times you will keep raising the petroleum prices? FDI in retail should be withdrawn,” she said in Kolkata.
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.”
In Ahmedabad, Commerce Minister Anand Sharma said the Government does not believe in rollback as decisions were made after much deliberations.
With the parting of ways looking nearly certain, the Manmohan Singh Government will have to look for support from two key outside supporters Samajwadi Party (22 MPs) and BSP (21 MPs).
If Trinamool goes ahead with its decision, UPA’s strength will come down to 254, 19 short of majority in Lok Sabha, but with the support of outside allies like SP, BSP, JD (S) and RJD it still has the backing of over 300 MPs in a House of 545.
The Samajwadi Party was not making it easier for the UPA with its chief Mulayam Singh Yadav saying its parliamentary board will meet tomorrow to decide its strategy. But his brother and MP Ram Gopal Yadav later said there was no such meeting.
A new element in the high-voltage political scenario was Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s statement that his party JD (U) will support any party at the Centre, which will give special status for his State.
He has been asking for special status to Bihar in view of its backwardness but his statement has intrigued political circles, which were wondering whether he was willing to do political deal with UPA.
Should that happen, it will unravel his parties alliance with BJP that heads the NDA.
Meanwhile, the Congress today directed its party- ruled states to increase the number of subsidised LPG cylinders from six to nine, a day after the Trinamool Congress pulled out of the UPA Government at the Centre over hike in diesel prices, the FDI in multi-brand retail and a cap on subsidised LPG cylinders.
In a major step to accommodate demands of its allies, Congress president Sonia Gandhi directed Congress-ruled states to increase the number of subsidised LPG cylinders from six to nine, AICC General Secretary Janardan Dwivedi said.
Mr Dwivedi said the Congress president had spoken to Chief Ministers of Congress-ruled states and directed them to increase the number of subsidised LPG cylinders from six to nine.
Haryana, Maharashtra, Delhi, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Arunachal Pradesh, Kerala, Uttarakhand, Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Manipur have Congress Governments.
Responding to the claim by Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee that the alliance partners were not consulted before the decision on FDI in multi-brand retail and the hike in diesel prices, Mr Dwivedi said Ms Gandhi had been trying to contact Ms Banerjee for the past four days with even Prime Minister Manmohan Singh making an effort to explain to her the reason behind the decisions by the Government.
“Mamata Banerjee has put some demands. We are looking at those demands. Mamata Banerjee sent a message to the UPA chairperson. Mukul Roy has been given a message that Sonia Gandhi wants to speak to her. The Prime Minister’s Office also sent a message. The Core group discussed this issue as well,” Mr Dwivedi said. (Agencies)
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