With it's own clout on the UPA government now gone, the CPI(M)'s trade union wing CITU is banking on the UPA allies to stop Congress' plan for disinvestment.
CITU president and CPI(M) politburo leader M K Pandhe has written a letter today to Tamil Nadu chief minister and DMK chief K Karunanidhi seeking his intervention to spike the UPA government's move to disinvest 10 per cent of its stake in the telecom giant BSNL.
Although their own tactics of withdrawal of support from the UPA has not yielded any result and the government has survived the trust vote, the CITU president has suggested similar methods to Karunanidhi.
In his letter, Pandhe wrote, "Due to your firm stand the Government of India has prevailed upon to withdraw the proposal to disinvest Neyveli Lignite Corporation. I would therefore request you to take a similar stand on the question of disinvestments of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd., by taking up the matter with the Government of India so that BSNL remains as a proud PSU."
At that time, Karunanidhi was the head of the second largest ally of the Congress in UPA and had informally threatened to pull out of the government when Finance Minister P Chidambaram mooted the disinvestment of Nalco and Nayveli in 2006.
This time, A Raja from Karunanidhi's own party is heading the telecom ministry which has proposed to disinvest 10 per cent of BSNL.
But in an attempt to create a divide between the Congress and the DMK Pandhe has termed this to be Chidambaram's proposal.
"In a meeting the Communication Minister respected the feelings expressed by the workers representatives but it appears that the Union Ministry of Finance is determined to go ahead with the proposal", Pandhe wrote.
The Government of India has proposed to disinvest 10 per cent of its equity holding in BSNL in the stock market.
The BSNL Employees Union is vehemently opposed to the proposal despite the government offering shares to workers.
"I hope you would take into account the opinions expressed by the workers of BSNL so that Government of India's efforts to go ahead with BSNL IPO plan is nipped in the bud in time", Pandhe added.
Earlier, the CPI(M) had also tried to bring DMK in its camp against the Prime Minister's move to go ahead with the Indo-US civilian nuclear agreement.
But Karunanidhi had turned down the Left's proposal to oppose the nuclear deal and voted in favour of the ruling alliance.
