West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee took centre stage on Tuesday with everyone guessing whether she would pull the plug on the Congress-led UPA government over big ticket reforms.
Following a string of economic rollouts on Friday, Mamata set a 72-hour deadline for the government to withdraw all the polices or brace her "harsh decisions" that may include recalling the Trinamool Congress ministers from the UPA cabinet or completely withdrawing her support to the central government.
Meanwhile, the ruling Congress has shown no sign of giving into the demands of its formidable ally. Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Monday reiterated that the government has no plans to roll back the big decisions that were taken considering the country's weak economic position.
Referring to Mamata's threat, Chidambaram also said that the government is stable and in no danger.
In spite of being an ally to the UPA coalition, Mamata has been heading the campaign against the Centre's candid economic makeovers, including larger Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) into the retail sector, hike in diesel price and the restriction on usage of LPG cylinders to only six per year.
Mamata call these big-ticket economic reforms as an "anti-people decision," but market and investment experts perceive them as long overdue and game-changing decisions.
The Manmohan Singh-led government announced the decision of easing investment polices for overseas capitalists to claim larger stakes in aviation and retail sectors after the market was closed on Friday. Owing to the surprise economic policies in place, shares of companies such as Kingfisher Airlines Ltd and Shoppers Stop Ltd witnessed a jump on Monday morning.
