Govt walked tight-rope to woo Mayawati, Mulayam in Rajya Sabha
Also, since the implementation of the retail FDI policy has been left to the states, the BSP was asked to not worry about the political fallout if the party joined hands with the government in the Rajya Sabha.
The meeting is said to have gone late into the night and by the end of it, the Congress came back assured that the BSP would go the extra distance. Both arguments said to have been made by the Congress were echoed in Mayawati’s speech in the house Thursday.
While Mayawati went by the script, the government managed to prevent the SP from defecting to the opposition camp like it had done during the discussion on the Lokpal bill last December. For this, SP sources said, the PM spoke to Yadav late last night to thank him for bailing out the government in the Lok Sabha and is learnt to have appealed to him to avoid upsetting the UPA applecart in the Rajya Sabha as well.
The SP, however, was not aware of the talks between the government and the BSP and was taken aback by Mayawati’s stance in the Rajya Sabha. Having been beaten to the walkout in the Lok Sabha, the SP was a trifle upset with Mayawati stealing the show
