CPM & SP issue whips to their MPs

BY OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT

NEW DELHI

July 18: The CPI(M) and the Samajwadi Party on Friday issued whips directing their MPs to reach here over the weekend and to be present in the Lok Sabha on July 21 and 22.

The CPI(M) issued a three-line whip to 41 MPs asking them to reach here on July 20 and to vote against the government. The whip comes on the eve of a two-day meeting of the CPI(M)’s central committee here. Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee’s name was excluded from the whip.

The central committee is expected to firm up the party’s stand on the trust vote although the Speaker’s issue is not listed on the agenda. Mr Jyoti Basu has sought a tele-conference with CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat before the meeting begins.

The omission of Mr Chatterjee’s name from the whip is a departure because the CPI(M) had submitted a list of party MPs, including the name of Mr Somnath Chatterjee, to President Pratibha Patil on July 9 withdrawing support to the UPA government. Mr Chatterjee immediately got in touch with Mr Basu, who urged Mr Karat to exercise caution. Later CPI(M) politbureau member Sitaram Yechury tried to explain away the inclusion of Mr Chatterjee’s name in the list of MPs withdrawing support to the government, by saying the Speaker’s name should be included in the CPI(M) list as he was elected as a CPI(M) candidate but with an asterisk denoting that currently he is the Lok Sabha Speaker, as is the normal parliamentary practice. The 19th Congress of the CPI(M) held in Coimbatore earlier this year elected an 87-member central committee, with one vacancy. There are also six special invitees to the central committee.

Although the party congress held every three years is the highest decision making body of the CPI(M), in between two congresses it is the central committee which is the highest decision making body.

The SP, on the other hand, issued a three-line whip asking its members to vote in favour of the government. The whip came on a day when 12 of its MPs were conspicuous by their absence at a meeting called by party chief Mulayam Singh Yadavon Friday.

Mr Yadav sought to play down the absence of MPs, saying they could not attend the meeting due to various reasons. SP general secretary Amar Singh, in turn, cryptically said, "We do not bother about these people going away. We have managed more people than these from major parties."