TMC officially from UPA, ministers submit resignations

NEW DELHI: After submitting their resignations to the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, all six Trinamool Congress ( TMC) ministers met President Pranab Mukherjee and officially resigned from the UPA government.

Speaking on the issue Trinamool Congress leader Sudip Bandhyopadhyay said that the Prime Minister is sad at the resignation of the six ministers. Asked about what transpired between the PM and the ministers at the Prime Minister's residence, he said that talk between Manmohan Singh and the just resigned council of ministers is confidential.

Eariler today TMC announced it will launch countrywide protests against the government's economic policies, especially FDI in multi-brand retail.

Announcing this, Trinamool leader Mukul Roy said: "We will launch a protest all over the country to protest the FDI. The manner in which they (government) have introduced FDI is absolutely unethical."

Roy said: "On Dec 7, 2011, the leader of the house made a statement on the floor of parliament that FDI will be introduced through consensus.. we have not understood why the UPA government is in such a hurry to introduce it."

Roy, who holds the railways ministry portfolio, said the countrywide protest would also be against the hike in diesel price, capping subsidised cooking gas cylinders as well the rise in fertilizer prices.

The six Trinamool ministers arrived in the capital to hand over the resignation letters, three days after the party dramatically announced it was quitting the UPA government over its economic policies.

In a tit-for-tat move, Congress also announced that it will pull out its ministers from the West Bengal government.

"The ministers belonging to our party will resign from the Trinamool Congress-led government in the state after TMC ministers tender their resignation," WBPCC president Pradip Bhattacharya said.

Asked when the Congress ministers would resign, Bhattacharya said he was not sure when they would submit their resignation letters because some of them were out of station at present.