Food Bill gets Sharad Pawar backing, not Mamata's yet

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Food minister K.V. Thomas appears to have won over some of the detractors of the National Food Security Bill, which will be placed before the Union Cabinet on Monday.

His two-day firefighting has had mixed success: while the NCP appears to be on board, sources said the Trinamul Congress is still sticking to the position set forth by West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh before the last Cabinet meeting.

While the food ministry claimed Friday that detractors of the bill were now backing it, Trinamul sources said the party would make its stand clear only at the Cabinet meeting.

Thomas had spoken to railway minister Dinesh Trivedi (Trinamul) and met agriculture minister Sharad Pawar, who had raised objections at the Cabinet’s last meeting over the subsidy bill increase.

In just two days, Mr Thomas met a number of his Cabinet colleagues, including P. Chidambaram, Jairam Ramesh, Kapil Sibal, M. Veerappa Moily, Vayalar Ravi, Vilasrao Deshmukh, Sushilkumar Shinde, Ghulam Nabi Azad and Farooq Abdullah, to push the bill.

A food ministry official had earlier claimed that Mr Pawar was 'reconciled' to the bill.