Mumbai, December 31
Indicating that ally Trinamool Congress' demand for total deletion of provisions relating to Lokayukta in the Lokpal Bill may not be easy to meet, Home Minister P Chidambaram today said the government may accept one or two of its amendments.

Blaming the BJP for Rajya Sabha's failure to pass the Bill on Thursday, he told a press conference here that the government was keen that the Bill was passed in the next session.

"On December 29, they (the Trinamool Congress) insisted that they were not satisfied with the provision related to the appointment of Lokayuktas in states.

The Trinamool wanted deletion of part 3. It would have gone against the 'sense of the House' statement, which was that there must be a chapter on Lokayukta," he said.

The minister said the government had thought it had convinced Mamata Banerjee's party in the Lok Sabha when a proviso to Clause 1 sub-clause 4 was added. "But after December 27, they changed their position." "You are right. We failed to convince TMC. But we are confident that in the time between now and the budget session, we will be able to refine or redraft the provision and carry the TMC with us," Chidambaram said.

Indicating future strategy on the Bill, he said "We may have to refine and redefine. As far as passing the Bill in Rajya Sabha is concerned, we may accept one or two amendments.

It will be the same Bill, with one or two amendments. We cannot accept 187 amendments, it will be unrecognisable Bill."

Chidambaram defended the deferring of the Lokpal and Lokayukta Bill, 2011 in Rajya Sabha on December 29, contending that it was the "only prudent course" left before the government and that it had ensured that the Bill remained alive.

Attacking the BJP, he said it had devised an "ingenious" method to scuttle the bill by pushing 187 amendments along with some other parties, making it impossible to "analyse, classify and distill" them in such a short duration.

"We were taken by surprise (by the TMC). We thought we had convinced them after redrafting a provision, Chidambaram told a press conference here.

"It is a suspicious argument to say that the BJP supported the Lokpal Bill. The BJP did not," he said. "Because they had a certain number of votes, they defeated the Constitution amendment bill (in Lok Sabha). If they had more numbers or could muster more support, they would have defeated the Lokpal bill also," Chidambaram said.

To buttress his point, Chidambaram said, the bill was introduced in Rajya Sabha on December 28 and the government offered to start the discussion immediately.

"They said no, we cannot start the discussion on the Lokpal Bill and the Whistleblower Bill together and asked for separate discussions. We said, fine let us start discussion on one of the bills at least now. We have two-three hours. they said no, the Bills can be discussed only tomorrow," he said.

In Rajya Sabha, 187 amendments were introduced by the Opposition, he said, adding "I have never heard of these many amendments."