CPI(M) not to back Trinamool's no-confidence motion

"A no-confidence motion (in Lok Sabha) will only help the government cover up all wrong measures it has taken and claim parliamentary mandate, as it has the numbers to defeat such a motion," CPI(M) General Secretary Prakash Karat said here.

He said the Left leaders would talk to the Opposition parties urging them not to move such a motion but go in for some other steps to arraign the government on a whole range of issues.

"I hope the Opposition will come to an understanding to put the government in the dock," Karat said.

In the same vein, his senior party colleague Sitaram Yechury said, "If the no-confidence motion is moved, we would want it to be carried. Otherwise, the government will take it as an endorsement of all its anti-people policies for the rest of its tenure. We don't want to give such a certificate to the government."

Noting that a no-confidence motion would "not be issue- specific", he said the Left-sponsored motion entailing voting, to oppose FDI in multi-brand retail, would be "a much better strategy to defeat the government's move."

He said many parties like Samajwadi Party, which had participated in the nationwide strike in September to protest FDI in retail, would support such a motion and not a no- confidence vote. "(SP chief) Mulayam Singh Yadav had himself courted arrest during that protest."

Yechury said the CPI(M) and other Left parties would decide their stand on the basis of the "real situation in Parliament ... Whether they (Trinamool) are able to muster a majority (on no-confidence). Otherwise, it will be helping the government and providing an escape route to it.

"The track record of Trinamool Congress shows that they say one thing but do something else. So, we will have to wait and see," he said.

Last week, CPI, CPI(M), RSP and Forward Bloc had jointly decided to move motions under voting rules in both Houses of Parliament to reject the government's decision on the matter. Rule 184 of Lok Sabha's Rules of Business and Rule 167 in Rajya Sabha entail voting after discussion on a matter.