FDI: Congress woos Mulayam, Maya for Rajya Sabha numbers

NEW DELHI: With the BSP continuing to resist the Congress’s persuasion to openly support the decision to allow foreign retail chains into the country, the government on Tuesday furiously cranked up its efforts to dodge a likely defeat in Rajya Sabha.
On a day when the SP and the BSP, serial saviours of the government in crunch situations, slammed the FDI decision in the Lok Sabha debate, the government was preoccupied with the worry of losing the numbers game in the other House.Unlike in the Lok Sabha, where the SP and BSP can help the government clear the numbers test by merely abstaining, the UPA will need the direct support of one of the UP outfits to score a certain win.
The BSP, just like the SP, did not join other non-UPA parties in insisting on a debate in Rajya Sabha under a voting clause, Rule 168 to be precise, besides declaring in Lok Sabha its inability to join communal forces: code for the BJP. However, the Congress’s hopes of persuading the BSP to turn its indirect assistance into open support by voting against the opposition failed to materialize on Tuesday, leading UPA managers to fish for all possible numbers in the upper House.
Congress sources said the BSP has expressed its inability to move beyond abstention during the vote in LS on Wednesday, citing the SP’s decision not to vote with the government and arguing that it cannot afford to cede political mileage to its main foe.
BSP chief Mayawati told Congress’s emissaries that she would reveal her hand just before the Lok Sabha vote, at a meeting of her MPs she has called at 4 pm. However, Congress managers recognize that she may find it difficult to take a line different from Mulayam Singh Yadav, given their intense rivalry in UP; as well as that she may find it difficult to behave differently in RS when the upper House takes up the vote on Friday.
After an urgent meeting, Congress sources expressed hope that the government would squeak through by four votes if it manages to ensure the presence of all the members who are non-aligned — a category that covers Independents, the unattached as well as all nominated members except Sachin Tendulkar.
The absence of the BSP and the SP will reduce RS’s effective strength to 220, leaving the opposition with a wafer-thin edge. The anti-FDI column has 110 votes, pushing the government into a situation where the absence of even one of its members can lead to a politically embarrassing defeat. The BSP, with 15 members, can tilt the scales decisively.
In contrast, the government is sure of smooth sailing in LS: its confidence reflected in its nonchalance when the SP and BSP launched a severe attack on FDI. With 43 seats between them, the two UP outfits can tilt the scales decisively in LS in case they choose to translate their rhetoric against FDI into a vote against government’s decision, taking the number of anti-FDI votes to 261 as against 245 committed for the UPA.
In attacking FDI, Mulayam was unambiguous. Yet, his barbs elicited earnest nods from the Congress brass led by Sonia Gandhi. The FDI vote is another demonstration of how the Congress has successfully balanced arch-rivals from UP into backing the Centre.