New Delhi:
BSP on Monday stayed away from a meeting of 13 Left and other Opposition parties, held here to chalk out a strategy for bringing a cut motion on the finance bill in the Lok Sabha and to pressurise government over price rise issue.
The BSP had been invited to the meeting, but nobody from the party turned up for it.
Prominent leaders from the 13 parties who attended the meeting, that started a short while back, include V Maitreyan (AIADMK), CPIM general secretary Prakash Karat and his party colleagues Sitaram Yechury and Basudeb Acharia, INLD chief Om Prakash Chautala, Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav, CPI leaders Gurudas Dasgupta and D Raja.
Apart from these, Debabrata Biswas of Forward Bloc, T J Chandrachudan and Abani Roy (both from RSP), RJD chief Lalu Yadav and his party leader Prem Chand Gupta, RLD leader Ajit Singh, TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu and his party colleague Yerran Naidu, JD(S) chief H D Deve Gowda and BJD's Arjun Charan Sethi, were also present in the meeting.
According to sources, during the meeting, the parties could also consider launching a nationwide protest against the government's "failure" to prevent rise in prices of essential commodities, probably a 'Bharat Bandh' (nationwide general strike) in the last week of April.
A cut motion, which is also being contemplated by these parties against the finance bill, puts to test the strength of the government in the Lok Sabha. If the motion is adopted, it amounts to defeat of the government on a money matter and it has to resign.
The second phase of the budget session is beginning on April 15 in the shadow of the Dantewada massacre bringing unprecedented concern over the Maoist menace that saw Home Minister P Chidambaram offering to resign.
The meeting is also significant as it is for the first time that these parties are making a common cause on the issue of price rise since the Congress-led UPA came to power for the second time in May last year.
Left parties, which are spearheading the move, are sworking towards a strategy so that the entire Opposition, including the BJP, could vote on a single cut motion in the Lok Sabha.
The parties want the government to rollback the increase in customs duty on crude oil and the excise tax on petroleum products.
The Left leaders, including Prakash Karat, have said the idea of convening the meet was not to topple the government.