Kolkata, Oct 6 (IANS) With the clarion call of moving a no-confidence motion against the UPA regime, Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee - days after a bitter political divorce - has renewed her 'jihad' against the Congress over a cabinet decision to allow FDI in pension and insurance.
Days after the bitter separation with Congress over retail FDI and fuel price hike, Banerjee staged a sit-in demonstration in New Delhi and shared dais with JD-U leader Sharad Yadav, fuelling speculations of Trinamool jumping onto the NDA bandwagon before the next general elections.
Apart from the presence of Sharad Yadav and speculation of Trinamool joining NDA, the sit-in demonstrations with a very thin crowd hardly had any takers, unlike the political motive of Banerjee who was under the illusion of creating ripples within the UPA with her demonstrations.
Both the Congress and the UPA partners didn't give much importance to the Banerjee's 'flop show' at Jantar Mantar.
Desperate to maintain her national importance with a dream of playing a bigger role in national politics after the next Lok Sabha polls, Banerjee opened a new front against the Congress government of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh after the cabinet's decision to allow foreign equity in pension and insurance.
The union cabinet Thursday cleared the proposals to amend the legislations governing insurance industry to hike foreign equity from 26 percent to 49 percent and on pension to allow up to 26 percent stake to overseas investors.
With all these proposals requiring parliament's approval to take effect, Banerjee - who was infuriated with the way Congress ignored her threats - fired a fresh salvo, with a call of removing the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) regime by moving a no-confidence motion against the central government.
"The minority government cannot play such an immoral role. Let us move a no-confidence motion. We have decided to meet the president (Pranab Mukherjee) with an appeal to oust the UPA-II minority government," Banerjee had stated.
However, with just 19 MPs in Lok Sabha, Banerjee is well aware that her no-confidence motion will die in the floor of the parliament.
So an impulsive Banerjee appealed to all the political parties including the allies of UPA to come out and fight against the Congress-led ruling coalition, but unfortunately just like her sit-in demonstrations in New Delhi this call too had few takers as most of the UPA allies didn't respond to her call in a positive note.
"Politics is not done on the basis of emotions. It is done on the basis of hard realities, from which she is trying to shy away," a senior NCP MP told a news channel.
"Anybody can bring in a no-confidence motion. But in order to make it a success (topple the government), you need numbers. She still doesn't have the numbers," said BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi.
Apart from her 'misadventure' to topple the UPA regime, Banerjee also has a herculean task of keeping her party intact in the days to come.
According to Trinamool sources and news reports a section of union ministers - who were forced to resign as result a pull out - have not taken the decision in a good note, which is quite obvious for Trinamool - which for the last one year have been plagued with factionalism and infighting.
The clouds of rebellion within the party first appeared after this year's railway budget when then railway Minister and Trinamool MP Dinesh Trivedi went against party line and increased train fares, as a result of which he was sacked by Banerjee.
So in a bid to placate the six former union ministers, Banerjee has created an advisory committee on economic and social development comprising of these former ministers and Trivedi - so that Congress can't poach on these MPs.
But, whether this move will create more confusion than serving the purpose as all these departments have full time ministers - will be answered in the days to come.
(Pradipta Tapadar can be contacted at pradipta.t@ians.in)
--Indo-Asian News service
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