Opposition unity hit as TMC skips vote on Finance Bill

New Delhi: Opposition unity went for a toss when the Trinamul Congress walked out while amendments moved to the Finance Bill were being voted on in the Rajya Sabha on Thursday.

However, it seemed to be a well thought out plan as far as the TMC was concerned. Party leaders said the TMC wanted to send a signal to the Congress, which has increasingly shown a proximity to the former’s archrival in West Bengal, the Left.

There is no need for the Congress to “visibly” warm up to the Left. “Thus though we had got a call from Congress leaders in Rajya Sabha for joining hands to embarrass the government in the Upper House, we stayed away from voting,” a senior TMC leader told this newspaper.

Both the Congress and the Left have protested against the TMC government in West Bengal over the Narada scam in which a CBI inquiry was ordered recently.

The CPI-M, however, said it was to save itself from the probes into its various scams that West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee was getting closer to the NDA.

“This is the fourth edition of Didi Bhai-Modi Bhai. It is like Matrix 1, 2, 3, 4. CBI is now looking into Narada and thus TMC is deal-making with NDA. Even the walkout was meant to send a signal. But TMC is now seen as compromised,” CPI-M general secretary Sitaram Yechury said.

He said that even after the TMC walked out, it could not ensure a BJP victory. “Its bargaining power has been checkmated on both sides”.

The TMC had been at the forefront of the anti-demonetisation protests in November and December. Ms Banerjee had led at least three marches to the Rashtrapati Bhavan and held a joint rally with Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal in front of the RBI office in New Delhi.

While two top leaders of the TMC — Tapas Pal and Sudip Bandopadhyay — are under arrest in the Rose Valley case, the Supreme Court recently gave a go-ahead for a CBI probe into the Narada scam.