Government holds no ethical right to be in power: Mukul Roy

Ahead of submitting his resignation, Railway Minister and Trinamool Congress leader Mukul Roy on Friday said the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance-II government no longer had the moral right to continue in power.

"From the very moment the government became a minority government, so, it is unethical on the part of the government, when it has not got the majority numbers on the floor, to push the FDI in so hurry. We are not understanding that why they have got so hurry to push with the FDI, it is the most unethical decision," Roy told the media in Kolkata.

"We will go all out to resist FDI in the retail sector. We will go all out to curb down the price hike, we will go all out to launch movement for reduction of petrol-diesel hike and withdrawal of subsidy from LPG and fertilizers- to reduce the fertilizer rate for the farmers. The farmers and common people are crying, this government is anti government. They should take fresh mandate from people otherwise these sort of actions is most unethical," he added.

Asked will there be a meeting before tendering of resignations? Roy said, "No, the meeting has taken place, we have committed the decision unanimously. So, as per the party's decision, we will hand over our resignations to the prime minister."

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"And, it is my proud privilege that the party has endorsed me to communicate the party's decision to withdraw support from this anti-people UPA-II Government," he added.

TMC ministers will meet Dr Singh on Friday to resign from his government over the new reforms he cleared last week. They will then head to Rashtrapati Bhawan where they will formally withdraw their letter of support to the ruling UPA coalition in which Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress was the second-largest ally.

Trinamool Congress has six ministers, including one of Cabinet rank, in the UPA government.

Banerjee had earlier said there is no room for negotiations on the issue of FDI in retail and ruled out going to Delhi for any talks with the Congress leadership.

Emphasising that the Congress-led UPA government did not consult the TMC on FDI issue, Banerjee said, "When Pranab Mukherjee was the leader of the House, he had said there would be no decision on FDI without consensus. Forget consensus, they did not even bother to consult us."

After Trinamool Congress's withdrawal of support, the UPA government's support in Lok Sabha will come down from 273 to 254 and the coalition will be heavily dependent on Samajwadi Party (22) and BSP (21) for its majority in the House.

For a simple majority, government needs the support of at least 273 MPs in a House of 545.

However, the government remained unperturbed over any threat to its stability following Trinamool Congress's decision.

Finance Minister P Chidambaram said, "We had enough friends yesterday, we have enough friends today. So, I don't think why you should doubt our stability." Asked whether the government would look for new allies, he said," If we can acquire new friends, why would we not."

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