Mamata not to press for vote on retail FDI

The Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) managed to avert a vote in Parliament on the issue of allowing foreign direct investment in retail trade with the Trinamool Congress, Bahujan Samaj Party and Samajwadi Party, all UPA outsiders, deciding not to oppose the government's proposal for discussion and no voting on the proposal.

An all-party meeting on FDI in retail, however, failed to arrive at a consensus on the voting issue as the National Democratic Alliance, the Left parties and some regional parties stuck to their opposition to FDI in retail.

But, Mamata Banerjee, bitten be the BJP-Left volte face on her no-confidence motion against the UPA government, decided to oppose them on the retail FDI issue.

"We want to leave the decision to the speaker. The BJP didn't support us on no-confidence," said Trinamool Congress MP Sudip Bandopadhyaya.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Janata Dal (United), Left Front and the AIADMK are all aligned in favour of voting after the all-party meeting ended while UPA ally DMK too to opposed to FDI in retail trade.

The Congress seems to have managed to convince most of the parties to go for only a discussion on FDI and let Parliament function, effectively ending the probability of a vote on the issue defeating a policy initiative.