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Making it absolutely clear that the UPA Government was not going to bow down before the demands of the TMC, Finance Minister P. Chidambaram on Wednesday said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has tried to talk to Mamata Banerjee, but there has been no response from the other end. "We have tried to speak to her four days ago. The Prime Minister tried to speak to her. We have left a message. We have not heard back from her," he told media persons here. The Congress-led UPA Government appears to be in trouble as of now following West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's declaration that the Trinamool Congress would be pulling out of the UPA Government. The Congress Core Group met at Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh's official 7, Race Course Road residence here earlier today to decide on the next steps in wake of the TMC withdrawal from the ruling UPA Government. The meeting of the Congress Core Group, which included Dr. Singh, Congress president Sonia Gandhi, Defence Minister A.K. Antony, Finance Minister P. Chidambaram and Gandhi's political secretary Ahmed Patel, lasted for nearly two hours. Trinamool Congress, the second biggest constituent of the UPA with 19 MPs, dealt a major blow to the Manmohan Singh Government when it decided to withdraw its support on the issue of petroleum price hike, FDI in retail and corruption. The TMC's decision brings the UPA's effective strength in the 545-seat Lok Sabha from 273 to 254, which is slightly below the halfway mark. This would make the Congress-led UPA Government more dependent on the Samajwadi Party (SP) and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), both of which extend outside legislative support to the UPA regime.

We tried to talk to Mamata, but haven't heard from her: Chidambaram