The Trinamool Congress is “very clear” that it wants the “minority” Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government to “resign immediately” as it has lost both its “mandate” and the “moral right to continue for a single moment.”
The Trinamool’s all-India general secretary Mukul Roy admitted that the government could hold on to power “using the numbers game” in Parliament but it remained a minority government in the wake of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) pulling out of the ruling coalition.
Trinamool chairperson and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has been talking of early Lok Sabha elections, going to the extent of saying at an event earlier this month that the polls were just “two to three months away.”
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The Trinamool, second-largest constituent in the UPA, had withdrawn its support to the UPA government in September 2012.
Roy decries PM’s confidence
Following Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s remarks expressing confidence that the UPA government would last its full five-year term, Mr. Roy observed that his party had been “clearly stating” for the past six months that the present government “had no moral right to continue for a single moment [longer].”
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“This time we are very clear that we want the [UPA] government to resign immediately,” Mr. Roy asserted.
Speculation scotched
His comments set to rest speculation within certain quarters that the Trinamool might be looking at reviewing its relations with the UPA government — fuelled by an assurance from its leaders that the party stood by the Centre on matters relating to the country’s external relations.
This speculation arose after it voiced support for the Centre in the wake of the DMK’s decision to pull out of the UPA government on the issue of atrocities against Tamils in Sri Lanka.
Recalling that the Trinamool had withdrawn support to the UPA government because of the latter’s “anti-people policies” — ranging from the decontrol of petrol and diesel prices, introduction of foreign direct investment in the retail sector and rise in prices of fertilizers — Mr. Roy said that it was “crystal clear that [the UPA] government has no mandate.”