Govt, Cong set for GST showdown in Rajya Sabha today

New Delhi: The Narendra Modi government is locked in an eyeball-to-eyeball confrontation with the Congress on the crucial Goods and Services Tax (GST) Bill.

The Congress has made a strong pitch for sending the bill to a select committee for scrutiny, contending that the NDA government has made certain changes that need examination.

NDA floor managers, led by Parliamentary Affairs Minister M Venkaiah Naidu, have launched efforts to get the non-Congress Opposition parties on board to ensure that the bill gets through the Upper House.

The hitch for the government lies in the numbers that are stacked heavily against it. Being a Constitution Amendment Bill, its passage would need the presence of a minimum 50 per cent of the 244 members of the House. 

If all 244 members remain present for the voting on the bill, the government will have to ensure the support of two-thirds of the members, which works out to 163.

As on date, the government has the support of 116 members that include the BJP (47), SP (15), Trinamool (12), JD-U (12), BJD (7), TDP (6), Shiv Sena (3), Akali Dal (3), PDP (2), NCP (6), SDF, RPI and TRS (1 each).

Eighty-two members are



strongly opposed to the bill, which include the Congress (68), AIADMK (11), Kerala Congress, IUML and RJD (1 each). Among the 29 fence-sitters are BSP (10), DMK (4), Left (10), JD(S), JMM, INLD, BPF, NPF (1 each).

 The Modi government may have a smooth sailing if the Congress walks out at the time of vote, as it did in the Lok Sabha. But the Congress members are not keen to oblige. Their resolve of ensuring referral of the bill to a select committee was seen when former prime minister Manmohan Singh made a strong pitch for it on Saturday.

Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad was tight-lipped on whether the Congress would vote against the bill if push came to shove. “We are not opposed to the bill in principle. We just want it referred to the select committee for examination as there are some changes to the bill that the UPA had presented,” he said.

The Congress has pulled out the “Gadkari card” to unite the Opposition that had splintered over the GST bill. It hopes that keeping the heat on removal of Nitin Gadkari as Union minister citing irregularities in his Purti Group highlighted by the CAG will help it avoid making difficult choices over the GST bill.