Cong quits Bengal govt
A day after six Trinamul Congress ministers resigned from the UPA government at the Centre, an equal number of Congress ministers resigned from the Mamata Banerjee government in Bengal.
Just as the six Trinamul Congress ministers had later handed over a letter to President Pranab Mukherjee on Friday informing him of their party’s withdrawal of support to the UPA-2, state Congress president Pradip Bhattacharya, accompanied by the six ministers, handed over a similar letter of withdrawal of support to the state governor M.K. Narayanan.
The Trinamul Congress ministers severed ties with the UPA at the Centre after three years while the Congress ministers parted ways with the Trinamul Congress government after 16 months only.
Mr Bhattacharya said that his party was pulling out of the state government to protest its failure to check the deteriorating law and order specially crimes against women.
With this development, the Congress will have to quit treasury benches and occupy the opposition benches. Now the question arises if the Congress will stake claim for the main Opposition party status in the Assembly. At present it is the CPI(M) which occupies the position. But it has only 39 legislators while the Congress has 42. “We will discuss the issue with the party high command and seek their guidance. After that Mohammad Sohrab will convene a CLP meeting and will take a call on the matter,” Mr Bhattacharya said on Saturday.
The CPI(M) may have 39 members but the total strength of the Left Front is 61. Assembly Speaker Biman Banerjee has also said that he would consult the rule book to come to a decision on the issue.
Meanwhile, the state Congress ministers held a meeting at the Bidhan Bhavan from where they went to Writers’ Buildings at 5 pm and submitted their resignations. “We submitted our resignations to the chief minister on the directive of the party high command. The chief minister told us that we had done a good job as ministers. She also said that if we ever had any work we should inform her,” Mr Bhunia later said.
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