While West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief Mamata Banerjee has decided to withdraw support to the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), led by the main Opposition party, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), seems in no mood to bring a no-confidence motion against the government.
BJP leaders, according to sources, feel the ongoing political uncertainty would help further expose the UPA allies, mainly the Samajwadi Party (SP) and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). The BJP leaders want to focus on Assembly elections in Gujarat, scheduled for December.
The leadership is also unsure of Banerjee’s course of action and are not ruling out a truce between the TMC and Congress. The BJP, said sources, would want to wait till Friday to see if TMC ministers at the Centre actually resign.
| NUMBER GAME | |
| Total support for UPA | 306 |
| Part of the government | 240 |
| Congress | 205 |
| DMK | 18 |
| NCP | 9 |
| RLD | 5 |
| NC | 3 |
| Outside support | 66 |
| SP | 22 |
| BSP | 21 |
| RJD | 4 |
| JD(S) | 3 |
| Others | 16 |
“The idea is not to bring a no-confidence motion. We want to make people aware of the wrong policies of the UPA, and that is why we have called a nation-wide bandh. The Congress will have to pay a heavy price for these decisions. It has also become clear that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh doesn’t understand the mood of the country,” said Sharad Yadav, NDA convener and chief of the Janata Dal (United).
There is division within the NDA on the issue of demanding a special session of Parliament to discuss the Centre’s decision on allowing foreign direct investment (FDI) in multi-brand retail.
Though party leader L K Advani feels the BJP could demand a special session, Yadav doesn’t want the NDA to make such a demand. Some BJP leaders also don’t want a special session of Parliament on the issue. They say as a majority of the members of both Houses have already decided to take part in the nation-wide bandh, it is similar to a no-confidence motion.
Senior BJP leaders said for the time being they were concentrating only on the bandh. The decision on whether to make a demand for a special session of Parliament will be taken at an NDA meeting after September 20.
