The Communist Party of India (Marxist) has decided to move cut motions seeking a rollback in the prices of petrol, diesel and fertiliser prices announced by the Union government in the budget for the current year.
CPI (M) Polit Bureau member and MP, Sitaram Yechury, said the Left has the support of three United Progressive Alliance (UPA) allies — Samajwadi Party, Rashtriya Janata Dal and Janata Dal (Secular).
The Bahujan Samaj Party would also extend its support if the cut motion was moved. “If these four parties with a combined strength of 46 votes in support of the cut motions, the government is sure to face an embarrassing situation,” he said in an informal chat with reporters.
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Mr. Yechury said that once the cut motions were put for voting with the support of these four parties, the UPA would be left with 274 members, including the Speaker. “A government calculating for numbers in less than a year of existence is unprecedented. The government will be left with no option, but to resign if it loses in the voting,” he said. It would be better for the government to rollback the prices if it wanted to survive.
Stating that it was difficult to predict the political consequences of the move, Mr. Yechury, however, said the UPA could indulge in ‘managing numbers' as it did in the case of voting on the India-U.S. nuclear deal earlier.
He said the Left parties had decided to observe a hartal (general strike) on April 27 in protest against the spiralling rise of prices among other things. If no remedial measures were initiated, they would intensify the agitation to mount pressure on the government.
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