Offering a bait to the Communist Party of India (Marxist) West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress chairperson, Mamata Banerjee said here on Tuesday that she will support a no-confidence motion in Parliament against the United Progressive Alliance government if the CPI(M) chooses to move one, provided it does not back-track later after “striking a pact” with the Congress.
Only too aware that the CPI(M) is averse to moving a no-confidence motion which it believes will simply help the UPA government cover-up its anti-people measures and give it legitimacy as it has the numbers to defeat the motion Ms Banerjee cautioned not just the “corrupt” government at the Centre but also the “the saviours of corruption.”
“The people are also watching the saviours of corruption”, she said, implying that any party not with her in this “big fight” could be perceived to belong to this category.
Unsure of whether she can muster the support of the required 50 MPs to have a no-confidence motion admitted Ms Banerjee is now keen to precipitate a situation in the State in which the CPI(M) will be portrayed as not just failing to take up the cudgels against a “corrupt” UPA government but also bailing it out.
Against the backdrop of growing disaffection among the common people with the Centre’s economic policies it would provide her extra ammunition in her fight in the upcoming rural polls, she might be hoping.
“The CPI(M) is saying that they cannot support a motion moved by the Trinamool Congress. But I am ready for talks, even willing to go to Alimuddin Street (where the CPI[M]’s State headquarter is located) if they move one. I have no ego….They may have an ego fight with us, we have none”, she asserted.
Ms Banerjee had spoken to Gurudas Dasgupta, Communist Party of India MP, over the telephone on Monday (as The Hindu had reported) in this regard, Ms Banerjee said, adding that she is open to talks with any party on a no-confidence motion against a government which “with its anti-people, don’t care attitude is doing as it wishes single-handedly”.
In an apparent rebuttal of the criticism directed her way for seeking the support of the Bharatiya Janata Party for a proposed no-confidence motion by her party – a move that might not go down well with large sections of the substantial Muslim population in the State - she said that what is at stake is “an issue that involves saving the country”.
Ms Banerjee also hit out at both the Congress and the CPI(M) for raising the BJP bogey, saying that it was a ploy to bail-out the UPA government “and sell-off the country”. There are also several instances when the CPI(M) had sided with the BJP on one issue or another, she added.
