The DMK party, a key member of India's ruling coalition, said on Saturday it was withdrawing from the Congress-led government, dealing a huge blow to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh as he battles a series of corruption scandals.
The DMK said it would give issue-based support to the government in parliament, where its 18 seats give the Congress-party led coalition a slender majority.
The Congress-led government can still survive by both depending on the DMK for support on key bills and trying to bring in other regional parties into its coalition.
The first test will come with the federal budget for 2011-12 which was introduced in parliament last week and has to be passed in the current session. The government would fall if it loses the vote.
A source at the prime minister's office said there was no crisis facing the government.
"I don't think we have received any resignation letters so far. There is no crisis at all," the source said.
The withdrawal of the ministers will make it much harder for the government to pass any reform bills, weaken the prime minister further and bolster the opposition.
The government has been hit by a series of corruption scandals that have already led to the resignation of a DMK minister from the government.
The party said it had withdrawn over a dispute over seats to be contested in an election in the DMK's Tamil Nadu state, although many analysts see its withdrawal as linked to a massive telcoms scandal that has implicated the party.
"The DMK has decided to withdraw from the government because the Congress does not seem interested to continue the alliance for the coming state assembly elections," a statement from the party said.
The crisis comes days after Singh suffered a loss of face after the Supreme Court rejected his appointment of a tainted civil servant as the head of the country's main anti-graft agency. Singh said he accepted responsibility.
HOWEVER, DESPITE DMK PULL OUT, UPA WILL NOT LOSE ITS MAJORITY.
The UPA is in no danger of losing majority at the Centre even if the DMK pulls out of the government.
With 18 members of the Lok Sabha, DMK is the third largest constituent of the UPA after Congress and Trinamool Congress.
While Congress has 207 MPs, Trinamool Congress is 19-member strong.
Other constituents of the UPA are NCP (9 members), National Conference (3), IUML (2) and JVM and VCK (1 each).
Without the 18-member DMK, the strength of the UPA comes down to 242 from 260. The magic number of simple majority in the 543-member Lok Sabha is 272.
The Congress-led coalition has a cushion available in the form of several parties like the Samajwadi Party and the BSP which provide outside support. SP has 22 members and BSP 21. Jaya Prada is an expelled member of the SP and is seen as a member supporting the UPA.
Besides, four-member RJD, three-member JD-S are also outside supporters.
With the outside support of these parties, the strength of the Congress-led UPA minus the DMK stands at 311, well past the magic figure of 272.
DMK has been with the Congress-led UPA since 2004 and has been generally been a dependable ally for the ruling party at the Centre.
source:Moneycontrol
source:Moneycontrol
