Left gives withdrawal letter to President

THE UMPIRE: With the ball now in President's court, all eyes are on Rashtrapati Bhawan.

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Keywords: UPA, Congress

New Delhi: The Left parties met President Pratibha Patil on Wednesday to formalise their withdrawal of support to the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Government.

Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) General Secretary Prakash Karat along with his Communist Party India and Forward Bloc counterparts - AB Bardhan and Debabrata Biswas - went to the Rashtrapati Bhavan to meet the President and hand over their letters of withdrawal.

Karat said that they have given two letters to the President. The first was letter of withdrawal from the four constituents of the Left Front - CPI-M, CPI, Forward Bloc and Revolutionary Socialist Party. The second letter demanded that the UPA government be asked to prove its majority in the Lok Sabha.

The letter also urged the President to hold a session of Parliament at the earliest on the Vote of Confidence.

After meeting the President, Karat said, "We have submitted two letters to the President. The first is from the four Left parties withdrawing support. We have also submitted a joint letter requesting the President to ask the Prime Minister to immediately place the confidence motion in Parliament."

"Left parties have taken a decision that if UPA goes ahead on the nuclear deal we will withdraw support, " Karat said.

"We have taken this step for two main reasons. First this government is a minority government minus the Left. This government has disregarded Parliament. UPA and Congress leadership has violated the understanding arrived on November 16, 2007," he said.

The CPI-M list submitted to President has 44 names, which includes Speaker Somnath Chatterjee and Independent Sebastian Paul. Paul is an MP from Ernakulam in Kerala.

Sources have told CNN-IBN that Chatterjee will quit as Speaker soon.

With the Left pulling the plug, the UPA-Left Nuclear Coordination Committee meeting that was supposed to take place on Thursday is redundant.

Soon after the Left announced that it was withdrawing its support to the UPA on Tuesday, the Congress convened an urgent meeting at the residence of party President Sonia Gandhi to chalk out its strategy.

The Congress seems confident that with the Samajwadi Party on its side, it has the requisite numbers to cling on to power. The focus is now on smaller parties and their support could prove crucial for the survival of the government.