New Delhi: The Mamata Banerjee-Congress relationship is now a closed chapter with six Trinamool Congress ministers set to formally submit their resignation letters. They will meet the President to convey their decision of withdrawing support to the UPA. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is also expected to address the nation after Mamata's ministers resign.
Rarely seen in the corridors of their ministries and rarely heard discussing policies, Mamata's six gems in UPA-II would exit Manmohan Singh's government on Friday with no one to miss them.
Mamata's trusted lieutenant Mukul Roy's first comment was, 'Why should I go to the accident site,' when on the first day after he took office as the Minister of States for Railways, a train mishap happened. Roy later became the Railway Minister, after Dinesh Trivedi was forced out, and then he got busy to write off what his predecessor did.
One ministry that suffered the most was railway, rail reforms were derailed, the Railway Minister was absent and the Rail Bhawan in the national capital operated from Writer's building in Kolkata.
CPI leader D Raja said, "They have ruined the Railway Ministry. What happened to Mamata's Vision 2020 document? They are known mostly for their controversies."
Recently as the President of Paralympic Association of India, MoS Tourism Sultan Ahmed faced allegations of misgovernance. While he travelled with his wife, the athletes were left unescorted at the London games village.
Sudip Bandopadhyay was mostly heard defending Didi and not discussing Health Ministry issues.
Ministers of State for Rural Development and I and B Shishir Adhikari and Chowdhury Mohan Jatua were also often missing.
"As it is the Ministers of State don't have much work and they took advantage of that and didn't perform, their tenure was messy," DNA National Affairs Editor Diptosh Majumdar said.
But the only silver lining of TMC's tenure in UPA-II would be Professor Saugata Roy, Minister of State for Urban Development. "I don't know about others, but I had a good tenure, worked hard and brought reforms," Roy said.
These ministers will formally resign from the UPA government on Friday. Meanwhile, Mamata Banerjee continued to hit out against the government's notification on FDI in retail.
She wrote on Facebook, "Is it ethical, moral and democratic for a minority government to issue Government order forcefully and hurriedly, when massive protest against it is taking place? This action by a minority government questions its credibility."
The Numbers
All eyes will now be on how the UPA gathers more numbers. With the TMC formally withdrawing support, UPA-II will now have just 254 MPs, lower than the half way mark. If Mayawati's BSP decides to support the UPA, its strength in the Lok Sabha will go up to 275.
If tMulayam Singh Yadav's Samajwadi Party decides to support, the UPA's strength will go up to 276, five more than the half way mark of 271.
And if both parties bail out the government, then the UPA will be comfortable at 297. Add to that another four MPs of the RJD and the UPA safely crosses the 300 mark.
PM to address the nation
Meanwhile, the government is likely to address concerns over its recent tough economic reforms. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will address the nation on Friday evening.
The Prime Minister's address to the nation is very well timed, just after Mamata formally withdraws from UPA-II and her ministers hand over their resignations. Manmohan Singh is expected to issue a clarification on the reasons due to which Mamata is withdrawing from UPA-II. The PM is also expected to point out that it's largely left to the state governments to decide how they can soften the blow of fuel price hike.
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