Opposition planning a no-confidence motion against JPC chairman PC Chacko

NEW DELHI: Members of the Opposition in the joint parliamentary committee on 2G spectrum allocation are planning a no-confidence motion against chairman PC Chacko. Taking a leaf out of the Congress' book, the opposition parties are also trying to ensure that they gather sufficient strength to defeat the draft report.

"We want to do the same as Congress did in the Public Accounts Committee - mobilise numbers and get the report rejected," said a JPC member, who did not wish to be named. Five opposition members went into a huddle on Tuesday to chalk out a strategy for the JPC meet scheduled for April 25 to finalise the report. While Yashwant Sinha (BJP), Gurudas Dasgupta (CPI), TR Baalu (DMK) and Kalyan Banerjee (TC) met at the office of BJD's Arjun Charan Sethi, CPM and AIADMK extended their support to them. AIADMK's M Thambidurai could not attend because he was in Chennai to finalise the strategy with party chief J Jayalalithaa.

JD(U), though not present at the meeting, is also expected to back the move. The Opposition, which has 15 members, equal to the ruling side along with chairman Chacko, wants to send out the message that the panel is vertically divided on the report.

They are likely to meet again on April 25 before the meeting to finalise their strategy. The meeting was tactically held at a neutral place keeping in mind relations between the Left and Trinamool as well as AIADMK and DMK. BJP leader Jaswant Singh was given the task of speaking to Odisha CM Navin Patnaik. BJD member B Mahtab spoke to his party colleague Sethi to host the meeting.

While AIADMK is one with the Opposition, it has reservations about backing ex-telecom minister A Raja of the rival DMK. The opposition parties are expected to cite Chacko's refusal to call Raja as witness as one of the instances of his partisanship.

The JPC meeting will also bring to the fore the stand of SP and BSP, which had bailed out the government in PAC, when the Congress rejected the report and accused chairman Murli Manohar Joshi of partisanship.