Trinamool exits UPA

The Trinamool Congress today snapped its ties with the UPA government with its ministers handing over their resignations to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

The six Trinamool ministers led by Mukul Roy met the prime minister at his 7 Race Course Road residence and submitted their resignations. While Roy was a cabinet
minister, Saugata Ray, Sisir Adhikari, Mohan Jatua, Sultan Ahmed and Sudip Bandopadhyay were ministers of state.

Immediately following their meeting with the PM, the ministers proceeded to Rashtrapati Bhawan to hand over a letter withdrawing support to the UPA to president
Pranab Mukherjee.

According to Roy who spoke to reporters earlier in the day, the Trinamool Congress would launch nationwide protests against FDI in retail.

Dubbing the government decisions as anti-people Roy said the Trinamool Congress could not support it. On Wednesday, Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee
announced her decision to withdraw support to the UPA in protest against the centre's decisions to hike diesel prices, withdraw subsidy on cooking gas and allow FDI
in multi-brand retail.

Roy said his party had decided to protest against the hike in diesel price, withdrawal of subsidy from LPG and FDI.

Mamata and the Congress had been at loggerheads, hurling accusations at each other for not communicating over the former's protest against FDI in retail, and the
diesel and LPG price hikes.

On Wednesday, while union finance minister P Chidambaram claimed that the centre had tried contacting Mamata to no avail over the past four days, the Trinamool chief
dismissed the assertion, saying the union government was resorting to "untruths".