CPM, Congress to bring no-confidence motion against Mamata in Bengal Assembly

KOLKATA: For the first time in her five year seven month rule in Bengal, Mamata Banerjee is going to face a no-confidence motion against her government during the current winter session of the state Assembly. Two of her opposition parties — CPM and Congress — have joined hands to bring the motion against Mamata's government and MLAs of both the parties have submitted a letter to the speaker Biman Banerjee informing him about their intention to bring the motion.

Even though the CPM and Congress have been criticising several policies of Mamata's government, they did not dare to bring no-confidence motion in the state Assembly against her government since May 2011 when Mamata Banerjee became chief minister by ousting CPM-ruled government.

However, both CPM and Congress admitted that they would not be able to pull down Mamata's government with no-confidence motion as ruling Trinamool Congress has got absolute majority in the state Assembly. "We know well that we would not be able to pull down the government by bringing the no-confidence motion. Still, we have decided to bring the same to highlight misdeeds of Mamata's government, her party's undemocratic move to split opposition parties and grab forcibly several elected bodies which are still being run by the opposition parties." opposition leader and Congress MLA Abdul Mannan said.


"By bringing the motion, we want the Assembly to record our views on several issues related to Mamata government's failures," Mannan added.

Sources said that the Speaker will examine the non-confidence letter given by the CPM and Congress. "To bring a no-confidence motion, political parties need support of at least 30 MLAs in favour of their move. Congress and CPM have more than 30 MLAs jointly and they would be able to bring the motion. But the motion is sure to be defeated as Trinamool Congress is enjoying a huge majority," said a senior official of the Assembly secretariat.

It is expected that the speaker Biman Banerjee will fix a date for discussion on the no-confidence motion against the government during the current winter session which will be over on December 17.