Kolkata/New Delhi:
Stepping up pressure on its ally, the UPA, over petrol price hike, Trinamool Congress (TMC) has asked all its MPs to be in Delhi on Tuesday. Party leader Derek O'Brien tweeted today that the Trinamool leaders will meet the Prime Minister on Tuesday.
The TMC leaders want changes in operational structure of the UPA; they will also put forward their demand for monthly or quarterly meetings.
Sources say there is a possibility that Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee could pull out ministers from the Cabinet if the impasse over the petrol price hike is not broken. Sources also added that resignation letters of Trinamool ministers are with their chief.
Ms Banerjee has threatened to quit the UPA on the contentious issue. She is warning of withdrawing support from the Centre not just over the fuel price hike but also in the manner in which it was introduced.
With her 18 Lok Sabha MPs, Ms Banerjee is the Congress' largest ally and an indispensable part of the UPA. Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi is the only Cabinet minister from the party. Other Trinamool leaders in the government are Mukul Roy, Minister of State, Shipping; Sudeep Bandopadhyay, Minister of State, Health; Saugata Roy, Minister of State, Urban Development; CM Jatua, Minister of State, Information and Broadcasting; Sisir Adhikari, Minister of State, Rural Development and Sultan Ahmed, Minister of State, Tourism.
Ms Banerjee met with her MPs on Friday afternoon - the day petrol price hike was announced - and then held a press conference where she said that her party had not been consulted about the hike, and that her MPs are willing to quit the UPA if they are excluded from decisions like this one which affect the common man. "There is no way our MPs can defend this to our people," she said.
But the Prime Minister defended the decision to hike the petrol prices. "The move to decontrol petrol prices is part of the process of the direction in which we should move," Dr Manmohan Singh said at the G20 Summit in Cannes on Friday. The government had deregulated or freed petrol from all price controls last year.
Cornered by Trinamool and the Opposition over the petrol price hike issue, the government today found support in another ally, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP). Party chief Sharad Pawar endorsed the stand of the Prime Minister on the contentious issue.
"Anyone who understands world politics will agree with the Prime Minister's statement on the petrol hike. Economists who understand the world economy will agree with him; I'm not one of them though," said Mr Pawar.
The NCP chief also reacted to Ms Banerjee's threat to quit the Central government saying his party is with the UPA.
State-owned oil companies had, on Friday, increased the price of petrol by Rs 1.82 per litre, the second raise in less than two months. The hike in petrol prices led to allegations of a "midnight massacre" by the Opposition. From Mayawati in UP to J Jayalalithaa in Tamil Nadu lashed out at the Centre for the new price hike.
So far, petrol prices have been increased four times this year. They were last increased in September by Rs. 3.14. So now, in Delhi, petrol costs Rs. 68.64 as compared to Rs. 58.37 in January. Bangalore is hit the worst; it now pays Rs. 75.64 per litre.
A number of states will see elections in the next few months and the Congress' "aam aadmi" plank will be difficult to balance with petrol now costing Rs 17 more than it was at the beginning of this year.