NEW DELHI/KOLKATA: Positions hardened on rival sides with both the UPA
government and Trinamool Congress showing no signs of resiling on
their stands, a day after Mamata Banerjee announced her decision to
withdraw support to the Congress-led coalition that appears to be
confident about its numbers.
Samajwadi Party, a key outside supporter with 22 MPs, kept suspense
over its strategy in case of a trial of strength in Lok Sabha in the
wake of Trinamool Congress' decision to withdraw support.
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.
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.
Grappling with a near crisis situation, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh
today had a meeting with Congress President Sonia Gandhi and other top
party leaders and the message that came out of the deliberations
appeared to be that the Centre was in no mood to roll back its major
reforms decisions.
"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," finance minister P Chidambaram told
reporters after a meeting of a GoM on Media.
Indicating that the government was not in a mood to go back on its
decisions, he said if any of the Trinamool ministers wanted to talked
to them they will explain the circumstances that compelled the
government to take decisions.
