BJP tight-lipped on Mamata's no-confidence motion

Realising that the numbers are stacked in favour of the government, the Bharatiya Janata Party on Tuesday appeared reluctant to support the no-confidence motion that the Trinamool Congress has threatened to move against the ruling United Progressive Alliance, but is gearing up to corner it on the issue of Foreign Direct Investment in retail by seeking a vote on it.

The BJP Parliamentary Party Executive Committee on Tuesday held a meeting in Delhi to discuss the strategy for the forthcoming winter session. The TMC's no-confidence motion and FDI in multi- brand retail, as well as issues related to coal allocation and other matters, were discussed.

But the party leaders were tight-lipped about their future course of action as a common strategy is yet to be finalised with other partners of the National Democratic Alliance partners in a meeting later on Tuesday evening.

"We discussed in elaborate detail our strategy for the forthcoming Parliament session and have reached an opinion. We will share our views with our NDA partners and then convey the decision," BJP chief spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad said.

Party sources said the BJP is watching the developments but as it does not have enough numbers to overthrow the UPA government, it may not support TMC's no-confidence motion.

On the issue of FDI in multi-brand retail, BJP may have floor coordination with the Left parties as well as like- minded parties to press for a discussion under Rule 184, which entails voting, in Lok Sabha.

The meeting was attended by BJP president Nitin Gadkari, senior leader L K Advani, Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj, her Rajya Sabha counterpart Arun Jaitley, M Venkaiah Naidu, Yashwant Sinha, Jaswant Singh, Ramesh Bais, Maya Singh, Prasad, Rajiv Pratap Rudy and Shahnawaz Hussain, among others.