Mamata Banerjee exits

Completing the last rites of the Congress-Trinamool alliance, six TMC ministers submitted their resignations from the Union cabinet on Friday, and the party withdrew its support to the UPA government.

Railway minister Mukul Roy and five ministers of state — Saugata Roy, Sudip Bandhopadhyay, Sisir Adhikari, CM Jatua and Sultan Ahmed — handed over their individual resignations to prime minister Manmohan Singh at his 7 RCR residence. Later, they went to the Rashtrapati Bhawan and submitted a letter to President Pranab Mukherjee withdrawing their party’s support to the UPA government.

With the TMC’s 19 MPs withdrawing support, the UPA has been reduced to a minority in the Lok Sabha. However, Saugata Roy told mediapersons that they have not requested the President to ensure that the UPA faces a floor test. “Beyond the letter, we have not demanded anything extra,” Roy said.

The TMC has withdrawn support from the UPA-2 to register its protest against the reformist decisions like allowing 51 percent FDI in multi-brand retail, increasing the diesel price by Rs 5 per litre, and imposing a cap on the number of subsidized LPG cylinders per family at six. All these decisions have been opposed by political parties across the spectrum. Sensing this reality, the TMC has demanded that the FDI issue be voted in Parliament. “We want a debate in Parliament on FDI to have a sense of the house,” said Mukul Roy.

However, the government has already notified the FDI provision, and the issue does not require parliament’s approval, as no law has to be amended. So, the TMC’s demand is in effect a non-starter.

The inevitable parting of ways between the TMC and the Congress has provided a window of opportunity to push ahead with is reform agenda and give a fresh look to the government. “With six vacancies in the government, this is an opportunity to induct fresh faces, and also have a more forward looking railway minister,” a Congress general secretary said while pointing out that it was under the TMC’s pressure that the prime minister had to drop Dinesh Trivedi as railway minister earlier this year.

“It is their wish,” said Congress general secretary Janardan Dwivedi while commenting on the TMC’s exit. However, the party does not see this development as the end of the road in the relationship. “Just one letter cannot destroy a long-standing relationship,” Union law minister Salman Khurshid said.

Congress’s tit for tat in Bengal
Kolkata: As Trinamool Congress ministers put in their papers in Delhi on Friday, state Congress leaders here have decided to pull out their six ministers from the West Bengal government on Saturday.

“We had differences but we agreed to stay together as was the mandate given to us by the people, but with the TMC withdrawing support over FDI and diesel price hike, they have betrayed the people,’’ said Pradesh Congress chief Pradeep Bhattacharya.
“We have decided to withdraw our six ministers and support to the Trinamool Congress government.’’

However, withdrawal of support by Congress is no threat to Mamata government as it has an absolute majority in the assembly.

The Congress has also decided to chalk out a programme of agitation to highlight the failures of the state government, Bhattacharya said.
– DNA Correspondent