SP, TDP and Left want resumption of House

The Samajwadi Party, the Left and the Telgu Desam Party on Thursday decided to join hands against stalling of Parliament by the NDA. Leaders of these parties will demonstrate in the Parliament House to demand resumption of the House and initiation of debate over coal allocation.

Announcing this, they also demanded investigation of coal scam by a Supreme Court Judge.
 The move, which could be seen as a the pre-cursor to a third front, is aimed at isolating both the Congress and the BJP. The BJP is demanding resignation of the prime minister, and the Congress is denying special probe and the cancellation of allocations to private parties as demanded by the Opposition.

"Parliament should function and there should be discussion," Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav told reporters. "We want a probe against the guilty by a sitting Supreme Court judge. We also want the guilty to be punished," Yadav told in a joint press conference attended by Gurudas Dasgupta (CPI), Basudeb Acharia (CPM)  and Namo Nageswara Rao (TDP).

Reiterating the demand for punishing the guilty, Acharia held both the Congress and the BJP responsible for stalling Parliament. He said  "the coal scam is bigger than the 2G  scam”.

"We want a debate in Parliament. Both the Congress and the BJP have both joined hands. They don't want Parliament to function. It is match fixing," Acharia said.

He also  attacked Manmohan Singh and said he must take the responsibility since he was in-charge of the coal portfolio for a major part between 2004 and 2009 when the irregularities took place.

TDP leader Rao said "a through inquiry should also be done into how much loss the nation has incurred due to the allocation".