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Double impact: Trinamul suspends support, BJD boycotts railway budget

The Bharatiya Janata Party-led government, which has been weathering the Opposition storm over Pokhran for the last two days in Parliament, today faced a serious crisis.

While the Trinamul Congress, which has been supporting the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government from outside, has suspended support, the Biju Janata Dal, another ally, threatened to pull out of the ruling alliance.

Trinamul Congress leader Mamata Banerjee took the decision, charging the BJP with aligning with the Communist Party of India-Marxist, her "greatest" political rival.

Addressing the media at her home in Calcutta, Banerjee condemned the BJP for not extending enough support to her party. She said she had enough evidence that a Bombay-based corporate house was negotiating the alleged alliance between the two parties.

Expressing serious dismay at the attitude of the Vajpayee government for not including several of her proposals in today's rail budget, Banerjee said she felt she was badly let down by the Union government.

All these recent developments had left no other option for the Trinamul Congress but to suspend support to the government for the time being, she said.

She, however, refused to clarify whether she had already intimated her decision to the prime minister or any other minister of the Union Cabinet.

Meanwhile, Union Railway Minister Nitish Kumar faced major embarrassment during his maiden railway budget speech on Thursday, when the Biju Janata Dal, the BJP's coalition partner, boycotted his speech.

The BJD was protesting against the non-allocation of funds for Orissa in spite of the party being one of the constituents of the 18-party coalition headed by the BJP.

BJD MP B Padmanabhaia told Rediff On The NeT, "Though our leader had told the coordination committee meeting that they should give extra aid to Orissa since it was the poorest state in the country, our demand was not even considered."

The BJD has 9 MPs in the Lok Sabha.

"Forget considering our demands, the railway minister has completely ignored our state. In fact, Ram Vilas Paswan, the former railway minister, allocated Rs 1 billion for Orissa in his last rail budget. I don't know how will we face the people of Orissa in the assembly election."

However, the MP denied reports that the BJD was considering to withdraw support to the two-month old Vajpayee government.

"There is no question of withdrawing support to the BJP government. It will be decided only by (Steel Minister and BJD leader) Naveen Patnaik when he meets the prime minister," the MP added.

Asked why he boycotted the rail budget despite being part of the ruling coalition, he categorically said, "In a democracy the coalition partners have a right to express their displeasure against the government. So, there is nothing wrong in it."

By-elections are being held in five assembly constituencies in Orissa. Out of this, three are being contested by the BJD: Baragad, Namkhorda and Bhandari Pokhari. The BJP is contesting the other two: Banei and Nilagiri.

In the general election, the BJP, which had no representation from Orissa in the previous House, managed to win seven seats, in league with the BJD which won nine. The Congress, in power in the state, won the remaining five seats.

Vajpayee is scheduled to meet Patnaik on Sunday, May 31, when the latter will once request the prime minister to consider the BJD's demands, Padmanabhaia said.

Syed Firdaus Ashraf, UNI

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