By IANS,
New Delhi : Under pressure from its allies, the Congress-led UPA government Tuesday agreed for better coordination and requested them to ensure that all members are present in parliament so that they can vote along with the government on crucial financial matters.
“There is a fair chance there could be voting on occasions when these three subjects are taken up. We request all the leaders should ensure that their members are present in the house and vote along with the government,” Home Minister P. Chidambaram told reporters. He was referring to the president’s speech, the rail budget and the general budget.
He was speaking outside 7, Race Course Road – the official residence of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The prime minister had invited UPA allies – DMK and Trinamool Congress MPs — to dinner and to discuss the strategy for the parliament session, which will be taking up crucial financial business, including the rail and general budget this week.
He also expressed confidence that the government would be seeing through financial business in parliament.
“We all agree that there should be greater coordination. The parliamentary affairs minister will call the leaders of the parties to discuss floor coordination,” he said.
The senior Congress leader also brushed aside differences with UPA’s key ally Trinamool Congress.
Senior Trinamool Congress leaders, including its seven ministers, skipped the dinner. The party is also planning to organise a sit-in in the parliament complex to demand a special financial package for West Bengal.
The lone Trinamool Congress member present was MP Ratna De Nag.
“The Trinamool Congress representative was present and the meeting was cordial,” Chidambaram added.
He also said that “smaller parties who are the members of the alliance desired that they should get more time to speak because they cannot express their views in two three minutes.
“We agreed that Congress will give chunk of its time to smaller parties so that members can speak 7-8 minutes,” he added.