What is the impact of TMC pullout on UPA? - India News and Travel Times Provides India-centric and other News and Features

The acute cacophony over unexpected bold series of reforms between Congress-led UPA-II Government and its mercurial key ally partner Trinamool Congress (TMC) that eventually resulted in the latter pulling out of the alliance, hit the media on Friday evening. Is the Centre relieved after TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee withdrew her support? Was Banerjee an albatross round the Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh government's neck which has felt relieved after the maverick Banerjee detached her regional TMC, in charge of the debt-ridden West Bengal state? After months of stuttering performance of Asia's third largest economy specially due to global economic crisis and domestic political gridlock, India had to liberalise its economy by opening up its supermarket sector and announce FDI in airlines and broadcasters in a bid to stave off a ratings downgrade, just a day after it increased price of heavily subsidized diesel. "I believe that these steps will help strengthen our growth process and generate employment in these difficult times," Dr. Singh said via microblogging site Twitter soon after the announcement. Singh's bold step to liberalise India's battered economy earned brickbats from many quarters including his firebrand coalition partner Banerjee, whose TMC rules West Bengal state after dethroning the over three decades long Communist regime. She gave him 72-hours of ultimatum (that ended on September 18 evening) to trash the reforms long-sought by investors. Last year, the Indian Government had to put the plans to open up its retail industry to foreign supermarkets on hold after Banerjee exerted intense pressure on Singh's government. But this time, Singh's government seemed in no mood to cave in to the pressure of the defiant coalition partner after facing the threat of having its credit rating downgraded to junk and remained confident of aiming at reviving the stammering Indian economy. But finally, the relation between UPA and TMC that was hanging by a slender thread broke off after Singh, who has been widely criticised for presiding his corrupt government in timid manner, regained his muscle after facing the threat of having its credit rating downgraded to junk, and so he remained bold of aiming at reviving the stammering Indian economy. Sticking to her decision to pull out of the UPA, the firebrand TMC supremo Banerjee announced that her party's ministers at the Centre would resign on Friday. "The game is over. There is no room for negotiation. We will launch a nationwide protest against FDI in retail. The UPA government was in a hurry to introduce FDI in retail by bypassing the Parliament. This is a minority government and the act of bypassing the Parliament is most unethical," TMC leader Mukul Roy, who held the portfolio of Railway Ministry in Singh's government, told mediapersons before submitting his resignation. And as per their announcement, six union ministers of Banerjee-led TMC including Railways Minister Mukul Roy and rest of the five (Saugata Roy, Sudip Bandyopadhyay, Choudhury Mohan Jatua, Sultan Ahmed and Sisir Kumar Adhikari) ministers of state met Singh at his official residence in New Delhi, submitted their resignations and further moved to Rashtrapati Bhavan to meet President Pranab Mukherjee to formally announce their withdrawal of support to the ruling UPA coalition on Friday evening. Sudeep Bandopadhyay, who was the Minister of State for Health, said the stability of the UPA government is in danger. "We are happy as we are resigning for the people. The stability of the government will fall. We will dominate Indian politics in the future," he said. Has the Government of India landed in a soup? Will it be able to retain its majority in Lok Sabha? "Posterity tends to be excessively harsh on losers. In the coming months, after the present political storm has either subsided or transformed itself into a fierce cyclone, the Congress will no doubt reflect on the course of events that led to Mamata Banerjee withdrawing her Trinamool Congress from the UPA-2," senior journalist Swapan Dasgupta wrote in his column published in The Asian Age. David Sloan, an analyst at political risk research consultant Eurasia , told Reuters: "Barring a political perfect storm, we now believe that the current government is likely to limp along through the scheduled end of its five-year term in mid-2014." BJP national spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad earlier said 'the beginning of the downfall of India 's corruption-plagued government has started'. But soon after Indian Government's shaky coalition after TMC formally withdrawing its support, Singh in (his third televised address in eight years in office) 12-minute speech reasoned for some important economic policy decisions the government has recently taken, saying the reforms were necessary to curb a ballooning fiscal deficit and revive the stuttering economy. "The challenge is that we have to do this at a time when the world economy is experiencing great difficulty. The United States and Europe are struggling to deal with an economic slowdown and financial crisis. Even China is slowing down," said Singh in his unusual televised address on Friday. "The message given was that 'we don't need (Trinamool Congress) for survival of the government and we'll go ahead with the reforms because that is what's good for the country," D.H. Pai Panandiker, head of the RPG Foundation, a New Delhi-based think-tank, said of Singh's speech. After Trinamool Congress's withdrawal of support, the UPA Government's support in Lok Sabha has come down from 273 to 254 leaving the coalition heavily dependent on Samajwadi Party (22) and BSP (21) for its majority in the House. For a simple majority, the Manmohan Singh-led government needs the support of at least 273 MPs in a House of 545. Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav earlier said that his party would continue to lend outside support to the Congress-led government. "Our support is clear. We will not let communal forces come to power. That is why I am supporting. I am not in UPA. But we are supporting so that communal forces do not go ahead," he said. Mayawati's Bahujan Samajwadi Party is, however, yet to make any announcement on providing support to the UPA coalition. There are many other smaller groups weighing their options. Much would depend on the result of the economic policies put forward by the Government. For the present, Dr Manmohan Singh has successfully avoided falling into a soup. What next?

Is UPA Govt without TMC relieved or in a soup?