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UPA confident of Trinamool support
Updated : Sep 18, 2012
A day ahead of the Trinamool Congress meeting in Kolkata, a newly-energised United Progressive Alliance appeared confident that the 19 MP-strong party would not pull out from the government. The worst the Congress anticipates, a party functionary said, is that West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool supremo Mamata Banerjee may withdraw her six Ministers at the Centre. He, however, added that talks were on with the Trinamool to avert that as well. Unlike last year, when Ms. Banerjee’s threat to leave the UPA forced the government to suspend its plans to allow FDI in multibrand retail, this time, the Manmohan Singh government is in no mood for compromise. Neither is the Congress. For, even as Finance Minister Chidambaram told a group of journalists on Monday that there would be no roll back on any of the recent economic decisions, Congress functionaries, too, endorsed the government’s tough line. The only point on which the Congress differs with its government is on limiting the number of LPG cylinders to six per household at the current price. Congress sources said the government had been told that the figure of six needs to be increased to eight to 10. Indeed, on Monday, the Sheila Dikshit government showed the way by announcing that in Delhi, each household would be entitled to nine subsidised LPG cylinders annually.