Mamata, DMK in Catch-22 situation

With Prime Minister Manmohan Singh ruling out a rollback of the hike in oil prices, allies Trinamool Congress and DMK find themselves in a Catch-22 situation.

With Prime Minister Manmohan Singh ruling out a rollback of the hike in oil prices, allies Trinamool Congress and DMK find themselves in a Catch-22 situation.

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The two who have 37 MPs can neither swallow the hike nor walk out of the government. Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee’s real worry is not the hike but Pranab Mukherjee’s decision to raise Rs 800 crore through service tax.

As for Tamil Nadu CM M Karunanidhi, he fears any rift with the Congress will mean a chance for Jayalalithaa to get close to the party before assembly polls next year.

Banerjee thinks the service tax proposal would eventually cost the Railways Rs 6,000 crore, sending her ‘dream budget’ into a spin, and even force her to plan increase in freight rates between 6 and 7 per cent if the burden has to be passed on to the consumer. She has resisted a hike in freight and passenger fares and would rather go down as a “pro-people” minister.

“But the service tax is going to send my plans for railways haywire,” she is believed to have told her aides.

She did not think Mukherjee’s announcement of Rs 16,000 crore support to the Railways would help. What has irked her was that the matter was not even discussed with her ministry.

Countering her contention, Bengal Congress leaders said they agreed with Mukherjee’s view that a lot Banerjee’s announcements had neither the approval of the Cabinet nor Planning Commission.

“Her budget announcements have made a mockery of the whole exercise when the two parties have to think about winning the assembly polls in 2011. Besides, we have to face the civic polls in the three months this year,” said a WBPCC leader.

In Kolkata, Banerjee said: “We are in the UPA and we will continue to be in it. We don’t want to get into any quarrel. In a democracy, different political parties have their own position and our party has also articulated its view.”

In Chennai, Karunannidhi’s daughter Kanimozhi echoed Banerjee: “There will be different points of view in a coalition but that doesn’t mean the alliance has to break.”