Downfall of UPA govt has begun: BJP

Complimenting Mamata Bannerjee for the "bold stand" her party has taken by withdrawing support to UPA, the BJP today claimed the downfall of the central government has started and raised questions on its stability.

"The beginning of the downfall of the UPA government has started. Practically, it is now a Congress government... After the withdrawal of support by Trinamool Congress, a serious question mark is there on the stability of this government," BJP chief spokesperson Ravi Shankar Prasad told reporters here.

"We need to applaud and compliment Mamataji for taking such a bold stand, purely in the interest of the people of the country," he said.

Prasad said BJP will decide soon after consultations within and with NDA allies on whether there is a need for convening a special session of Parliament in the wake of withdrawal of TMC support to UPA.

The BJP leader said the way Mamata and her TMC collegues were forced to take this decision, it "amply indicates the supreme arrogance" of Congress.

"It is not in the DNA of Congress to have a dialogue and trust the allies and that we are seeing and noticing with repeated regularity. The sheer arrogance that 'we can rule and others have to follow' is the biggest folly of the central government, which is now a Congress government."

He said the government is now increasingly drifting towards minority and "it is very important that no decision in a hurry be taken, which this government is prone to, so that people of the country continue to suffer as they have in UPA-II."

BJP spokesperson Prakash Javdekar dubbed the Trinamool Congress' withdrawal of support from the UPA government as a reflection of "arrogance of power" in Congress.

"...this is a kind of arrogance of Congress which now is recoiling on them. That is Congress' politics," Javdekar told reporters here after the announcement of TMC chief Mamata Banerjee.

He said UPA allies have been complaining that they are not consulted on key issues.

"The Prime Minister had promised to take a decision on FDI in multi-brand retail only after consulting to allies and speaking to everyone else. But neither did he consult the opposition not speak to everyone," the BJP spokesperson said.

"This is Congress' arrogance of power...it takes granted all allies and everybody and the whole decision of retail and diesel price hike was taken only to divert the attention of the nation from the issue of coal scam in which Congress is neck deep in corruption," he said.

Noting that people are aggrieved with the Centre's latest moves, Javdekar said the Bharat bandh call given on Thursday will be a "great success because people are suffering and people are angry on this government".