KOLKATA: The Congress and the Trinamool Congress looked set for a head-on collision on Saturday with Mamata Banerjee refusing to back down on her opposition to the UPA's sudden reforms blitzkrieg and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh backing the measures to the hilt at a Plan panel meet .
The Trinamool chief's public posturing is similar to the Left ultimatum to UPA I over the Indo-US civil nuclear deal in 2008. However , unlike the Left, Mamata may just stop shortof withdrawing support . "We don't want to topple the government . At the same time , there is a ground rule in coalition politics and one should not cross the Lakshman rekha . We need reforms but that should reach the poor and the common people ," the Trinamool chief saidon Saturday .
Significantly ,the chief minister , who had given President Pranab Mukherjee a warm welcome on Friday , stayed away from the IIT convocation programme where she was supposed to share the dais with Mukherjee.
Mamata's defiance has triggered a guessing game on the nature of the "hard decisions " she would take at the party's parliamentary committee meeting on Tuesday in case the Congress doesn't buckle under pressure by then .
In comments that were interpreted in political circles to mean that she might pulloutof the ministry and offer support to the UPA government from outside like the Samajwadi Party , Mamata said : "We are the second largest ally in the coalition. But look at the central ministry .Wehaveonly railways . Saugatada , Sudipda are all ministers of state though we are supposed to get four Cabinet berths . We have never hankered for Cabinet berths ."
According to Trinamool sources , Mamata has reasons to believe that the tally isn't going to improve much in the coming reshuffle of the Union Cabinet in Delhi.
The Trinamool chief's public posturing is similar to the Left ultimatum to UPA I over the Indo-US civil nuclear deal in 2008. However , unlike the Left, Mamata may just stop shortof withdrawing support . "We don't want to topple the government . At the same time , there is a ground rule in coalition politics and one should not cross the Lakshman rekha . We need reforms but that should reach the poor and the common people ," the Trinamool chief saidon Saturday .
Significantly ,the chief minister , who had given President Pranab Mukherjee a warm welcome on Friday , stayed away from the IIT convocation programme where she was supposed to share the dais with Mukherjee.
Mamata's defiance has triggered a guessing game on the nature of the "hard decisions " she would take at the party's parliamentary committee meeting on Tuesday in case the Congress doesn't buckle under pressure by then .
In comments that were interpreted in political circles to mean that she might pulloutof the ministry and offer support to the UPA government from outside like the Samajwadi Party , Mamata said : "We are the second largest ally in the coalition. But look at the central ministry .Wehaveonly railways . Saugatada , Sudipda are all ministers of state though we are supposed to get four Cabinet berths . We have never hankered for Cabinet berths ."
According to Trinamool sources , Mamata has reasons to believe that the tally isn't going to improve much in the coming reshuffle of the Union Cabinet in Delhi.
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