Missing UPA allies

On the day, when the UPA had to formally succumb to the pressure of the Opposition, the Congress found itself almost alone in the all-party meeting. Apart from Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress, slated to face crucial elections in West Bengal soon, no other alliance partner was present in the meeting called by Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar.

Sharad Pawar’s NCP, Karunanidhi’s DMK and Farooq Abdullah’s National Conference remained absent. In the earlier all-party meeting convened by Leader of the Lok Sabha Pranab Mukherjee, Pawar, Abdullah and DMK’s Dayanidhi Maran were present. Only Sudip Bandopadhyay, chief whip of the Trinamool, was present, as were three ministers of the Congress to represent the UPA. The ministers were Pranab Mukherjee, Pawan Kumar Bansal and Ashwini Kumar.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh joined the meeting just before the lunch break, but did not speak. Congress managers agreed, given the importance and stature of a meeting convened by the Speaker, the parties should have been represented.

However, it helped Trinamool to speak longer and make more political points, beside cementing ties with the Congress.

While Bandopadhyay supported the government on the issue of corruption, he also rubbed in two issues of sensitivity to the ruling leadership, price rise and unemployment.