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Trinamool pulls out from UPA
Trinamool Congress chief and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday announced her decision to withdraw from the Congress-led ruling United Progressive Alliance.
In a press conference in Kolkata on Tuesday evening, Banerjee said: "The UPA takes policy decisions, but while doing so they discriminate between states and it is not acceptable. The UPA did not take Trinamool Congress into confidence before taking decisions inspite of continuous request."
"My ministers will resign from UPA and will hand over their resignations to the Prime Minister on Friday at 3pm."
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'Congress never listens to us. Trinamool stands for principles'
Banerjee said that the ruling UPA did not consult her party before taking a decision on hiking the price of diesel or allowing FDI in multi-brand retail.
"FDI in retail will simply kill the poor farmers. FDI was raised to divert attention coal issue. The Congress never listens to us. The Trinamool Congress will not accept such arbitrary decisions and will quit from UP."
"Trinamool Congress stands for principles," stated Mamata Banerjee.
She revealed that she had personally requested Congress President Sonia Gandhi to change the "unilateral" decision by the Congress, but to no avail. Banerjee's decision comes after Congress remained firm about the latest reforms in spite of her 72-hour deadline.
The TMC had strongly opposed the government's moves to hike diesel prices and bring FDI in retail, which Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had termed as "big bang" reforms, and demanded a rollback of the hike and withdrawal of FDI in retail.
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'The government depends on the support of others'
However, Banerjee added a caveat saying if the Centre rolls back the decision on FDI in multi-brand retail, raises the cap on supply of subsidised LPG to 12 cylinders and reduces diesel price hike from Rs.5 to Rs.3 or Rs.4, then the party would reconsider the decision to withdraw support.
She said the central government was not a one-party rule.
"The government depends on the support of others. But in Bengal, we have a majority of our own and we are not dependant on others," she said.
Banerjee ruled out supporting the government from outside saying her decision was "not half-hearted".
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'When it has issue with Maya, it goes to Mulayam. When it has issue with Mulayam, Nitish comes in'
Widening the attack on Congress, she brought in issues like coal block allocation scam, black money and fertilizer price rise.
"The FDI decision was taken to suppress the coal-gate issue," the West Bengal chief minister said.
Accusing the Congress of indulging in "blackmail politics", she said whenever it has trouble with any of its allies, it goes to the other.
"When it has problem with Mayawati, it goes to Mulayam. When it has problems with Mulayam, it goes to Nitish (Kumar of JD-U) and it is like that," Banerjee said.
Referring to the FDI decision, she said there are 50 million people in the unorganised retail sector. "Where will these people go? There will be disaster. It has not been sustainable even in the West."
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'This govt can stay for 3 or 6 months. They have lost credibility'
Banerjee also criticised Finance Minister P Chidambaram's statement on Monday ruling out rollback on FDI.
She said after all these steps, the Trinamool Congress would now not even allow the Pension Bill and vowed to oppose it tooth and nail in Parliament.
"If we don't take a decision, they will even allow foreign players in pension sector. We can't tolerate. We will not tolerate any anti-people decisions and we will oppose everything," she said.
She said her party would not be responsible if the country was forced to go for a mid-term poll.
"This government can stay for three months or six months, I don't know. They have lost the credibility. And if they cannot maintain friendship with us, then they cannot maintain friendship with anybody," Banerjee said.
She also raked up the black money issue, questioning why the government has not taken steps to bring it back.