Trinamool Congress hardens stand against diesel hike, FDI decisions

KOLKATA: With the 72-hour deadline to the Centre to rollback diesel price hike, LPG subsidy cap and FDI in multi-brand retail expiring today, Trinamool Congress mounted fresh pressure with a Union minister belonging to it listing three options, including withdrawal of support to UPA.

"There could be pullout of ministers from UPA, there could be withdrawal of support from the government or ministers will not attend office," Union Minister Sultan Ahmed said.

Ahmed said there was no division in the party on the issue. "We all are with Mamata Banerjee," he said.

Party MP Kunal Ghosh, a close aide of TMC supremo spoke on the same lines. "To be in the government or not hardly matters to TMC. Our fight is to protect the interest of the people of the country. All options are open," he said.

Stating that TMC parliamentary party would meet tomorrow to take a decision, he said, "We have made our position clear. We will not support the series of anti-people decisions. We want rollback."

Asked whether there was a possibility of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh speaking to the Trinamool supremo, he replied, "We have heard about it, but there is no information."

The Trinamool Congress has one cabinet minister, Mukul Roy and five ministers of state, Sudip Bandyopadhyay, Sougata Roy, Sultan Ahmed, Sisir Adhikary and C M Jatua in the Union council of ministers.

The party is the second largest constituent of the UPA with 19 members in the Lok Sabha.