Shipping Minister TR Baalu's insouciance while admitting that he had "put in a word" and exercised his influence with the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) and Petroleum Minister Murli Deora to secure natural gas for companies owned by his sons is likely to disrupt the proceedings in Parliament when it meets on Monday.
Opposition managers will decide their floor strategy on the issue at a meeting tomorrow morning.
Deputy leader of the BJP, VK Malhotra, indicated that the meeting would take a decision on bringing a motion against Baalu. The issue had disrupted the proceedings in the Rajya Sabha for two days.
The row has turned into a major controversy with the BJP targeting Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and seeking an explanation as to why the PMO wrote letters favouring early gas supply to companies owned by the family of Baalu.
The Opposition continued to disrupt proceedings with the BJP and the AIADMK wanting the Congress-led government to come clean on the issue. The BJP is raking up the issue in the Rajya Sabha vigorously with a twin purpose: to put the government in the dock and also to strengthen its blossoming ties with the AIADMK.
AIADMK supremo J Jayalalithaa has demanded Baalu's resignation on the issue.
However, the group that is caught in a political dilemma is the Left parties. They are in alliance with the ruling DMK in Tamil Nadu but will find it extremely difficult to support such a blatant display of nepotism.
Senior BJP leader L K Advani demanded a statement from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in Parliament to clear his position on the issue. Advani dubbed the allegation as a "major scandal".
"I demand, therefore, that the prime minister make a statement in both Houses of Parliament on this murky episode," Advani said in Thiruvananthapuram.
