West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday stopped short of withdrawing support to the UPA-II government at the Centre. Angered by the latest petrol price hike, the Trinamul Congress Parliamentary Party held an emergency meeting and passed a unanimous resolution on withdrawal of support in protest. Ms Banerjee persuaded them to keep their decision on hold till the Prime Minister returns from Cannes.
“In the last 12 months, there have been 11 price hikes. They take these decisions unilaterally without consulting us. This is intolerable. The party’s parliamentary committee met today and unanimously decided to pull out. I want to congratulate them for taking this bold decision. However... I told them that since the PM is abroad, they should wait. Once Dr Singh returns, our MPs, including Central ministers will meet him either on November 8 or 9 to personally convey their decision to him,” Ms Banerjee said at the Writers’ Buildings.
Ms Banerjee complained that in Bengal her party has a two-third majority but she gives full importance to ally Congress while the Congress, which needs the support of the allies to run the UPA, is not following coalition dharma.
[The DMK also demanded a rollback of the petrol price hike, saying it added enormously to the burden of the poor, lower and middle classes. The NCP and NC were also unhappy and sought a reconsideration of the decision, PTI reported. In an unusual development, the Kerala high court said it was concerned over the price rise and directed Indian Oil and Reliance Petroleum to produce their balance sheets and quarterly reports.]