New Delhi/Kolkata, Nov. 20 (ANI): Despite West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee reaching out to Left Parties for her no-trust vote, Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) leader Sitaram Yechury on Tuesday said his party would not support the Trinamool Congress's move to bring a no-confidence motion in the Winter Session of Parliament as it would provide the Congress-led UPA Government an escape route.
"The point is not a confidence or no-confidence, the point is to make the government reverse the anti-people policies that it is implementing. The issue is to force them to rollback this FDI in retail, force them to stop giving more access to FDI in insurance and pension funds. These are issues that are in the interest of crores of our people and in the interest of our nation," said Yechury.
"Our priority is to stop that from happening and therefore we have moved our resolutions in the relevant clauses, which should be voted upon. Now, by bringing a no-confidence motion and by not being sure that you will get that passed in Parliament or in fact where all the numbers indicate to a contrary, bringing a no-confidence motion is only providing the government an escape route. And that is something, which we are not ready to," he added.
Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, who is still to garner support from all political parties over her move to bring a no-confidence motion, earlier today reached out to her arch-rival and said that her party is willing to support a Left-sponsored motion on the issue of FDI in retail.
"I am ready to talk to any party on no-confidence motion. If the Left brings no-confidence, Trinamool is ready to support it," she told mediapersons in Kolkata.
Banerjee, who has had the bitterest rivalry with the Left in West Bengal, also said that she had phoned the Communist Party of India (CPI) leader Gurudas Dasgupta to try and push for support.
"I have told Gurudas Dasgupta... the CPM has said we can't support Trinamool Congress' no-confidence motion. If that is the case, why don't you ask the CPM to table a no-confidence? We will support," she said.
Moreover, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) today avoided to comment on the move to support TMC's no-confidence motion against the UPA Government.
"We discussed in elaborate detail our strategy for the forthcoming Parliament session and have reached an opinion. We will share our views with our NDA partners and then convey the decision," said BJP chief spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad.
BJP's Parliamentary Party Executive Committee held a meeting today to discuss the strategy to corner the UPA Government in the Winter Session of Parliament. The BJP leaders present in the meeting reportedly discussed TMC's no-confidence motion and FDI in multi- brand retail, as well as issues related to coal allocation and other matters of national interest.
The Winter Session of Parliament will begin on November 22.
The TMC had parted ways with the UPA coalition over differences on the fresh economic reforms introduced by the government in mid-September, including the decision to allow foreign direct investment (FDI) in multi-brand retail.
Parliament did not function for the entire Monsoon Session over the demand of the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's resignation and cancellation of licences of coal blocks and an independent probe into the coal scam. (ANI)