Allies still upset

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, DEC. 14. A dissatisfied Trinamool Congress today made it clear that although it had voted with the Government on the motion in the Lok Sabha, the Prime Minister had not fully addressed the question uppermost in its mind, and that he had failed to retract his controversial statements of last week.

So incensed was the party chief, Ms. Mamata Banerjee, that at one point she led her MPs out of the House minutes before the vote and made known her party's intention to abstain.

The Telugu Desam Party was also supportive of the Trinamool though its leaders were more diplomatic. Mr. K. Yerran Naidu, TDP parliamentary leader, later said, ``it was not a question of satisfaction with the Prime Minister's response, but we have taken note of the fact that he was firm in his commitment to the NDA agenda and had also said that his government would accept the court verdict on the Ayodhya issue.''

The TDP, after having decided in the morning to vote against the motion since it felt the Congress, which moved the motion, was more concerned with the removal of the three Union Ministers than with the larger issue of secularism, lent its weight to the Trinamool just ahead of the vote.

The TDP felt that through the clarification, the Prime Minister had committed himself on record to abiding by the court's decision on the temple issue which had not been reflected in his reply earlier.

The Trinamool leaders went on record to say they were ``upset'' because the Prime Minister had failed to withdraw his controversial statements made to the press earlier last week. He had not taken care of the allies' sentiment, not to speak of the sentiments of the minorities.

Immediately after the Prime Minister's reply to the discussion, Ms. Banerjee walked out along with her MPs and made it known to senior BJP leaders that her party would abstain during the vote.

A worried BJP then got two senior Ministers, Mr. Pramod Mahajan and Mr. Jaswant Singh, to plead with her. She relented only after extracting a promise that she would be allowed once more to query the Prime Minister and seek another clarification.

Later Ms. Banerjee led her MPs back into the House and the Trinamool Chief Whip, Mr. Sudip Bandhopadhyaya, was allowed to seek a clarification.

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