Congress readies numbers for voting on FDI in retail

With the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) refusing to budge from its demand for discussion on foreign direct investment (FDI) under rule 184 that entails voting, the Congress managers are now scurrying for numbers to defeat the saffron party's motion in Parliament.

The party, which has secured the support of the SP and BSP in scuttling BJP's bid to embarrass the UPA government, plans to target smaller parties and Independent MPs besides weaning away some members of NDA parties such as the JDU.

On Sunday, Union Health Minister and AICC general secretary in-charge of Tamil Nadu Ghulam Nabi Azad flew to Chennai to ensure that the 18-member DMK walk out abstain during voting on FDI. The southern ally of the Congress is opposed to FDI in multi-brand retail.



Even as the BJP upped the ante against FDI, the DMK in cahoots with the Congress, plans to demand a discussion on the disclosure of retired CAG auditor R. P. Singh that a member of the Public Accounts Committee headed by senior BJP leader M.M. Joshi tried to influence the outcome of the 2G report and inflated the loss figure.

The DMK, sources said, will move a Call Attention motion on Monday demanding a discussion on the functioning of CAG. As regards FDI, the party is waiting for the outcome of an allparty meeting on Monday convened by parliamentary affairs minister Kamal Nath to evolve a political consensus over the mode of discussion on the issue.

The government is also planning to hold a meeting of UPA allies to discuss the FDI imbroglio.

"As far as the number game is concerned we are comfortably placed as the SP and BSP have assured to bail out the government and still we are not leaving anything to chances," a senior Congress leader said.

Already the first two days of the winter session which began on November 22 were lost due to the FDI logjam. The month-long session will have only 14 sittings excluding holidays and weekends and finance minister P. Chidambaram is keen to push key reform Bills in the session.

Sources said if the blockade continued the government will get crucial Bills such as Insurance Laws (Amendment) Bill 2008, Provident Fund Bill, Companies Bill 2011, the Banking Laws (Amendment) Bill 2011 and so on passed amid the din.

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