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NCP refuses to tow Congress line on TRAI amendment

THE CONGRESS IS facing a major embarrassment with its key ally, the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) refusing to tow its line on the issue of opposing an amendment to the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) Act, which would enable Prime Minister Narendra Modi to retain a key bureaucrat.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government had issued an ordinance after coming to power, to enable the appointment of Nripendra Misra, the former chief of the TRAI as the prime minister’s principal secretary.

The government has now moved a bill to amend the TRAI Act, which bars former heads of the regulator from taking up any government assignment after retirement. The BJP argues that the TRAI is the only regulator with such a rule and all other regulatory acts introduced by parliament does not have such a clause.

The Congress, however, is opposed to the bill and could create problems for the government in the Rajya Sabha, the upper house of parliament, where the BJP does not enjoy a majority.

But Sharad Pawar, the NCP chief, who is fiercely independent despite being part of the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA), has asserted that there is nothing wrong with the bill amending the TRAI Act, and that his party would not oppose it.

Most other political parties are also not opposed to the move by the BJP, though they could back the Congress in the Rajya Sabha.

Political analysts said here on Sunday that Pawar’s move is part of his strategy to outwit the Congress in a bid to gain more seats for the forthcoming assembly elections in Maharashtra. There is huge pressure on Pawar from within the NCP, with the cadre demanding that the party should contest 50 per cent of the 288 seats in Maharashtra in the forthcoming elections.

Many within the NCP want the party to break away from the UPA; the two parties have been in power in Maharashtra since 1999, but the relationship has always been uneasy.

Congress leaders here fear that Pawar might be in talks with the NDA about a possible agreement for the Maharashtra state assembly elections.

nithin@khaleejtimes.com