Top Trinamool leaders skip PM's dinner

Top parliamentary leaders of major ally Trinamool Congress on Tuesday kept away from the dinner hosted by the prime minister to keep the flock together after which the government expressed confidence of sailing through crucial financial business during the Budget session.

Trinamool made a token presence at the dinner at Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's residence with backbencher Ratna De Nag representing the party.

The issues to come up during the three-month long session were discussed and Finance Minister and Leader of Lok Sabha Pranab Mukherjee impressed upon the leaders that all members of their parties should be present in the House as there are crucial businesses that will come up.

Home Minister P Chidambaram told reporters that there was a "fair chance" that there could be voting on occasions during the debate on Budget and Railway Budget.

"We all agreed that there should be greater coordination because of crucial items of business -- motion of thanks to the President's address, railway budget and general budget," he said.

"There is a fair chance that there could be voting when these three subjects are taken up," Chidambaram said, adding "therefore we requested the allies that they should ensure that their members are present in the house and vote along with the government."

He expressed confidence that financial business would be passed in Parliament. "We confidently look forward to effective participation in Parliament during the next couple of weeks until the essential financial business is completed," he said. 

Parliamentary Affairs Minister P K Bansal, who is also the chief whip of the Congress, will call leaders of allied parties in his chamber at a fixed time to discuss floor coordination, Chidambaram said.

At the dinner meeting, Bansal briefed the leaders about the subjects and issues likely to come up over the next couple of weeks in Parliament.

The effort to ensure effective coordination assumes significance as Trinamool has already moved an amendment to the President's address, seeking deletion of a paragraph on NCTC.

As a measure of accommodating allies, the Congress agreed to give a chunk of its time to them during debate in Parliament.

Chidambaram said smaller parties who are members of the alliance desired that they should get more time to speak in Parliament as they are not able to express their views in two to three minutes allotted to them.

"That was appreciated by Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and we agreed that along with the time allotted to them in their capacity as a separate party. The Congress party has agreed to give its chunk of time to smaller parties so that their members can speak for at least seven or eight minutes," he said.

From among the allies, NCP was represented by Praful Patel, DMK by T R Baalu and RLD by Jayant Chaudhury besides others.

The minister said the meeting was held in a cordial atmosphere and "we confidently look forward to effective participation in the parliament over the next couple of weeks."