Is Trinamool Congress' threat to pull out of India's Congress-led coalition government in protest against the latest round of petrol price hike for real or just a political grandstanding keeping her own constituency in Paschimbanga?
The debate may go on but one thing that clearly comes out of this is relations between the party led by Mamata Banerjee and the government of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh are under strain.
The threat to withdraw from the coalition government is being seen by political observers as a manifestation of the strain that has been building up almost ever since Trinamool Congress and Congress came together to form the government in Paschimbanga after voting out the Left Front dispensation.
The first major sign of the strain came to the fore when Trinamool supreme Mamata Banerjee had opposed the Teesta water-sharing deal with Bangladesh, leading to its non-signing during Singh's visit to Dhaka in September and causing some embarrassment to the latter.
The relations between Trinamool Congress and the Manmohan Singh government developed more rough edges as Mamata had been unhappy over the latter's allegedly “inadequate” support to help her government financially.
Mamata had explained the state's poor fiscal health left behind by the Left Front government but funds have not flowed from the federal government when she needs it badly.
Mamata requires the money to execute the promises and projects she had made to the electorate before coming to power. Her eyes are firmly set on the panchayat polls in the state next year.
During the BJP-led NDA rule, Mamata had withdrawn the support to the then federal government headed by Atal Bihari Vajpayee in 2001 on the issue of corruption before joining back two years later.
In a show of her assertiveness, Mamata did some blunt-speaking yesterday when she reminded Congress party that while her government in Paschimbanga has two-thirds majority of its own and does not depend on Congress support, Trinamool's backing is essential to prop up the Manmohan Singh government. In fact, Trinamool Congress is the second biggest constituent of the UPA government after Congress.
Trinamool Congress sources allege the party has not been consulted on repeatedly increasing the petrol price but has nonetheless been suffering from the collateral damage of such an unpopular decision.
Is Trinamool Congress serious in pushing through its decision to pull out of the federal government or just trying to put pressure on the latter to extract the financial concessions it wants for Paschimbanga? Only time can tell.
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