PM doesn't discount possibility of SP withdrawing support to UPA

ON BOARD PM'S AIRCRAFT: With outside ally Samjawadi Party breathing fire in the last few days, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today acknowledged the possibility of its withdrawl of support to UPA but ruled out any threat to his government or early elections.

Vowing not to allow coalition compulsions to derail the reforms, he said government is confident of pushing ahead with the reforms that matter and that are going to yield results in the next few months.

Singh also appeared not to rule himself out of the race for Prime Ministership after the next Lok Sabha elections.

"Well, obviously coalitions face issues. Sometimes, they give the impression that these arrangements are not not very stable arrangements and I cannot deny that such possibilities don't exist", the Prime Minister said.

"But I am confident that our government will complete full five years, that the next election to the Lok Sabha will be held on schedule (in 2014)," Singh told reporters accompanying him on his return from a four-day visit to Durban in South Africa", he added.

Singh was replying to a question whether after the exit of DMK from UPA, Samajwadi Party, whose support is crucial, would withdraw backing this year to make the government "much more vulnerable" today.

DMK, which has 18 MPs in the Lok Sabha, pulled out of UPA and withdrew its support to the government on the Sri Lankan Tamils issue and Samajwadi Party has been attacking Congress and the government in the last few days.

Samjawadi Party with 22 MPs and BSP with 21 are providing crucial outside support to the government and bailing it out in times of crisis.

Replying to a question whether the government has the wherewithal to sustain reforms, the Prime Minister said reforms were not a not a once-for-all set-up that the government was seeking by way of reforms.

"Reforms certainly have to take into account the fact that we don't have the majority to get Parliament to approve some of our reform proposals. So, we are certainly dependent on the goodwill of our allies and I would be the last one to deny that there are uncertainties.

"But even then, we are confident the reforms that matter, and which are going to yield results in the next few months, we will be able to push them", Singh added.