Proposed No-trust vote
No threat to ruling combine: UPA
Anita Katyal/TNS

New Delhi, October 1
Having recently lost a key partner in the Trinamool Congress, the UPA government faces testing times ahead as there is fresh trouble brewing for the ruling combine.

On a day estranged ally Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee threatened to move a no-confidence motion against the government in the winter session of Parliament, the two-member Jharkhand Vikas Morcha (JVM) withdrew support to the UPA. To add to the government’s woes, the DMK said it would support any resolution against FDI in multi-brand retail in Parliament.

Unfazed by the day’s developments, UPA managers reiterated there was no threat to the ruling combine stating that despite their political rhetoric, the DMK and their outside supporters — the SP and the BSP — would not go as far as to destabilise the government.

After her exit from the UPA, Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee organised a public rally in the Capital to pitch herself on the national stage. While hitting out at the ruling combine over its decision to hike diesel prices, cap on subsidised LPG cylinders and on allowing FDI in multi-brand retail, she said her party would launch countrywide protests on these issues and reach out to other Chief Ministers to form a new anti-Congress front.

In Chennai, DMK chief M Karunanidhi reiterated his opposition to FDI in retail, saying his party would support a motion on this issue in Parliament. The DMK had earlier supported a Opposition-led Bharat Bandh to register its protest against FDI while its representative TR Baalu had conveyed the party’s unhappiness over the Centre’s reform measures at last week’s meeting of the UPA coordination committee.

Despite Mamata’s stinging attack, the Congress has decided not to retaliate in the same tone. Stating that he had high personal regard for the Trinamool chief, party spokesperson Manish Tewari said, “There comes a time in the life of every political party when you have to evolve from being an agitator to an administrator.”

As for the DMK, he said the government would allay its apprehensions by presenting empirical evidence on the benefits of FDI.

Encouraged by Karunanidhi’s statement that his party’s opposition to FDI would not affect its ties with the Congress, UPA ministers were confident that the DMK would be eventually persuaded to see their view point.

They were also cool to the talk of a motion against FDI in Parliament stating such a motion was not binding on the government.

As for Mamata’s threat on moving a no-trust motion, a senior minister was confident that the numbers would not add up when it comes to an actual show of hands.