UPA convinces Mayawati to vote with it on FDI

Bahujan Samaj Party leader Mayawati has decided to support the government on FDI as she does not want to destabilise the government, reports Renu Mittal

The United Progressive Alliance is all set to win the vote on Foreign Direct Investment in the Rajya Sabha with the party having managed the support of 122 MPs, which includes the 15 Bahujan Samaj Party MPs, who will vote for the ruling UPA. The Samajwadi Party is expected to abstain as they did in the Lok Sabha, as the party does not want to take a different stand from what it did in the Lok Sabha.

The voting will take place on Friday afternoon as the UPA has pulled out all its members, even the sick ones, and nine out of the 10 nominated members will also come except Sachin Tendulkar who is playing the Kolkata Test.

After Mayawati announced that her party will vote in favour of FDI in the Rajya Sabha, senior Congress members met to discuss the numbers and returned satisfied that they had a few members extra and there was no question of a defeat in the house.

Congress sources say that Mayawati does not want to destabilise the government as she does not want an early election and needs more time for the people to be fed up of the Samajwadi Party government in Uttar Pradesh. The government has also worked overtime to save her in the Taj corridor case.

The UPA needed the BSP with its 15 members to vote in favour of the government or else the numbers would not have added up, as the UPA is in a hopeless minority in the Rajya Sabha.

Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley while referring to Wednesday's voting in the Lok Sabha said the UPA was a lame duck government and would need to constantly compromise to keep ahead of the numbers game and keep its government afloat. He said that the government was far short of the majority mark of 272 and this was a matter of worry for the country as it would lead to compromises having to be made in various fields.

The line up of parties is the same as in the Lok Sabha except for the BSP, which has decided to change its stand and will now vote with the government.