Mail News Service
New Delhi, Sep 19: UPA government and Trinamool Congress have showed no signs of going back on their stands after Mamata Banerjee yesterday announced her decision to withdraw support to the Congress-led coalition..
Trinamool, the second largest constituent of UPA with 19 MPs, wants the government to totally withdraw the decision to allow FDI in retail, slash the Rs 5 hike in diesel by Rs 3 or Rs 4 and raise the cap on supply of subsidized LPG to 24 cylinders a year.
Congress will be 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 Congress has virtually written off her differences as irreconcilable and is trying to consolidate the support of other key partners to ward off mid-term elections.
The ruling coalition or UPA is in a minority without Ms Banerjee and the 19 Lok Sabha MPs of her Trinamool Congress, who quit the alliance last night to protest against decisions on fuel subsidies and allowing the arrival of foreign mega-chains like Wal-Mart to set up shop in India. Sources say that on Friday, when Ms Banerjee’s six ministers are scheduled to meet the Prime Minister to resign, he may make a last attempt to convince them of the need for big-ticket reforms, but neither side expects a rapprochement. “The government is not in danger…whenever we have taken decisions, we have managed the numbers,” said senior minister Ambika Soni.
Mamta Banerjee said she informed Sonia Gandhi on September 14 last about inability to support the decisions, but no attention was paid to it. She also said there was no communication on the part of theCentre with her after the announcement of Trinamool’s pulling out of the UPA.
She said her party is not against reforms, but it should be pro-people and not against the common masses. She however opposed the strike call given by the NDA, the Left Front .
Read more / Original news source: http://manipur-mail.com/congress-trinamul-stick-to-guns/