The BJP is in a vengeful mood. Come Monday, the saffron party is preparing its powder to defeat the SC/ST Job Promotion Bill that BSP chief Mayawati wants passed in Parliament, in exchange for her support to the government last week on the FDI Bill. The BJP is smarting under the defeat in the Rajya Sabha, after Maya’s U-Turn on FDI in retail.
Meanwhile, Congress parliamentary managers are keeping their powder dry. Their tryst with numbers in the Rajya Sabha has not ended with the nerve-racking voting on FDI in retail. Come Monday, they have to deliver the SC/ST Job Promotion Bill at Mayawati’s doorstep as quid pro quo. But, the main opposition party is so angered by the BSP chief’s volte-face that they may go to any extent to quash her deal— or her emergence as the new pressure point on the UPA, filling up the space evacuated by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.
So even as the minders of the government’s votes were busy ‘texting’/ensuring that the last member from their side arrived before the FDI voting (and a chosen few from the other parties did not arrive at all), they were bracing up for the Monday battle. The 117th Constitutional Amendment Bill, or SC/ST Job Promotion Bill, to be moved by Minister of State V Narayansamy, will require two-thirds majority to be passed. The Congress is not entirely sure of her motives, though. Whether Mayawati, herself, would want the bill cleared is also being questioned in ruling party circles. A Congress minister says, “She just wants to make a political point and later accuse the Manuvadis for not allowing the bill (to be passed). That suits her-painting everybody else as villains.”
with inputs from Subhash Mishra