Trinamool Congress plans resolution on FDI in Parliament

The Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress, which on Friday pulled out of the UPA government at the centre, has decided to move a resolution against foreign direct investment (FDI) in the coming session of Parliament.

"We have decided to move a resolution on FDI in the next session of Parliament," senior party leader and former minister of state for urban development Sougata Roy said.

MPs belonging to the party will also stage a demonstration in the national capital on 26 September, he added.

Roy had earlier held a meeting with party chief Mamata Banerjee and some of the former central ministers belonging to the party at the state secretariat in Kolkota.

The move comes after Samajwadi Party Mulayam Singh Yadav extended support to the UPA after Trinamool's pull-out from the coalition.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's address to the nation on Friday explaining the need for FDI in retail and the diesel price hike was also not expected by Trinamool Congress, according to Roy.

Congress also made another major gain in the bargain. The issue of retail FDI and the hike in fuel prices has now obliterated the major issue of corruption in the allocation of coal blocks to private parties.

While the question of the coal block allotments remains, the Manmohan Singh government is now less uncomfortable than it was before the diesel price hike and the FDI decision.