Friends-turned-foes call for Mulayam's head
By PTI |
Highlights
LUCKNOW: With the Congress and RLD having withdrawen support to the Mulayam Singh government, the winter session of Uttar Pradesh legislature was on Thursday off to a stormy start. A determined opposition pressed for dismissal of the SP government, forcing Governor T V Rajeshwar to cut short his speech.
The government faces a trial of strength in the assembly on January 25 when the House votes on the motion of thanks to Governor���s speech. The BJP, BSP, Congress and RLD members were up on their feet as soon as the governor rose to read his address on the opening day of the winter session and shouted slogans demanding the government���s dismissal for its ���failure��� to deliver on law and order front.
Carrying banners and placards that read ���Killer government must go��� and ���Rajyapal wapas jao��� (Governor go back), a determined opposition forced the governor to read the first and the last sentence of his address to the joint session of assembly and legislative council before he left in a huff.
Leader of the Opposition and senior BJP leader Lalji Tandon told reporters later that his party protested against the governor���s address because it did not contain any criticism of the government even though Mr Rajeshwar flayed the government outside the House.
BSP legislature party leader Swami Prasad Maurya also said the address of the Governor had no mention of the laxity of officials in Nithari serial killings and the ���wrong doings��� of the Yadav government.
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Mr Maurya demanded immediate dismissal of the government for its ���failure��� on all fronts especially on law and order situation. The Governor, in his address, praised the government for ���tightening its grip over the law and order situation��� and claimed there had been a ���positive decline��� in the incidents of dacoity, kidnappings for ransom, rioting, compared to the past years.On the Nithari incident, the governor said the state government had dealt with senstivity towards the victims and extended financial assistance to them. BJP state president Kesri Nath Tripathi said the opposition would have a chance to oust the government during voting on the motion of thanks to the governor���s address in the House.
After the withdrawal of support by Congress and RLD led by former Union minister Ajit Singh, who met the governor and conveyed his party���s stand, the Yadav government is looking to retain the support of 16 Independent legislators and the 33-member Bahujan Lok Dal, a breakaway BSP group.
Ahead of the January 25 vote on motion-of-thanks on the governor���s speech, BSP and ruling Samajwadi Party on Thursday began a mindgame about their respective strength. While the SP claimed a comfortable majority and indicated that many MLAs could change loyalties in its favour in the next few days, BSP said at least a dozen of its rebel legislators would return to its fold.
On paper, the Yadav government currently has the support of 206 members in the 401-member house whose nine members have been disqualified from voting by a court, reducing the half way mark to 197. SP general secretary and transport minister Naresh Agarwal, who had a history of triggering defections, said the SP would reduce the strength of those opposing it in the assembly.
He claimed ���several RLD and BSP MLAs are in touch with us and will join us at the appropriate moment���. Already two RLD legislators have defected to SP, which claimed some more were likely to join it in the next few days. A senior BSP leader claimed at least a dozen BLD members will return to party-fold in the next few days.
In New Delhi, the BJP termed the Congress withdrawal of support to the Mulayam Singh government in UP as a ���stunt��� and said if the party really wanted to bring down the government it could have done so by imposing President���s rule.
���They hardly have any presence in UP, what impact withdrawal would make? It is all symbolic drama and has no meaning,��� BJP spokesman Prakash Jawadekar said. ���If it really wanted to bring down Mulayam government, it could have done so by imposing President���s rule from the Centre where it is in power. But all these years they did not which only proves that Congress always has been hobnobbing with Mulayam,��� Mr Jawadekar said. He claimed ���only BJP has been fighting the jungle raj of Mulayam government at the grassroot level.���
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