Political opponents of the UPA swung into action to claim the credit for the Centre's volte-face on convicted lawmakers' ordinance with a few parties exploiting this opportunity to dub Manmohan Singh as a "weak Prime Minister".

"It has nothing to do with morality, legality,
validity or constitutionality. It is the sheer power of dynasty before which the Prime Minister and the cabinet meekly submitted," said BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad after the cabinet withdrew the ordinance on Wednesday. The BJP had rushed to President Pranab Mukherjee last week opposing the ordinance.

CPI's Gurudas Dasgupta too, hit out at the PM: "He has once again proved to be a shadow PM." The CPI(M), however, adopted a milder tone. Party's politburo member Sitaram Yechury said better sense has "finally prevailed" in the governmentas some parties had opposed the government's plan to bring an ordinance.

Meanwhile, the Samajwadi Party slammed the UPA government for its U-turn on a "well thought out" decision. Party MP Naresh Agrawal said the cabinet's decision also signalled that "one individual is bigger than the government", in a jibe directed at Rahul Gandhi.