Congress downplays Mamata's threat to unseat UPA govt

The Congress Party on Sunday downplayed West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress (TMC) supremo Mamata Banerjee's threat to withdraw her ministers from the Central Government over the issue of Foreign Direct Investment in multi-brand retail and the hike in diesel prices.

Congress spokesperson Rashid Alvi described Banerjee as an important ally of the UPA Government, and added that any problem pertaining to any issue, will be solved through dialogue.

"It would not be appropriate to comment further on this. We don't discuss our internal matters before the media. It is our internal matter; we will solve it out within ourselves," he added.

Banerjee took to the streets in Kolkata yesterday warning that the TMC would take ''hard'' decisions at the end of her 72-hour deadline set by her party if the UPA Government did not scrap FDI in retail, withdraw the diesel price hike and the limit on subsidised LPG.

"We have called a party meeting on Tuesday to discuss these issues. If the Centre does not roll back the hike in diesel price and withdraw decisions on FDI in multi-brand retail and curbs on LPG, we will take decisions, however hard they may be. I hope the people will not misunderstand," she told a rally.

Expressing astonishment over the government's sudden big-ticket reforms, Banerjee said: "I don't know what happened. So many decisions were taken on a single day. We want economic reforms that reach the grassroots, not something that benefits a section. These are anti-people decisions."

"We are not in favour of quitting the government. We are always in favour of not breaking the alliance. But we are committed to the people." Banerjee said "we are the second largest ally of UPA and we could have got more cabinet berths. We have now only the Railway ministry but that hardly matters to us. What matters to us are the people," she added.

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