SP won't pull rug from under UPA govt till Left backed it

NEW DELHI: Uttar Pradesh chief minister and Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav on Monday said he would not withdraw support to the Centre as long as the Left parties backed it.

“We would not withdraw our support to the UPA government until the left parties did so,” Mr Yadav told reporters on the sidelines of meeting of the chief ministers of North India on the Draft Approach Paper to the 11th plan organised by the Planning Commission here.

The Samajwadi Party chief said his outfit has extended support to the government on its own. He recalled that after a tough contest it was able to restrict the BJP from gaining 20 more seats.

“If they (BJP) had gained 20 more seats, could the Congress form government at the Centre,” Mr Yadav, whose party has 38 members in the Lok Sabha, asked.

He slammed the Manmohan Singh government for importing 35 lakh tonnes of wheat from abroad and said Uttar Pradesh alone can provide 50 lakh tonnes of wheat. “Moreover, the wheat being imported is of rejected quality,” he alleged.

He said the MSP in the wholesale market for wheat was Rs 650 a quintal while it was being procured at Rs 1,000 per quintal, thereby leaving the farmers a discouraged lot.

Accusing the Centre of dishing out “step-motherly” treatment to his state, Yadav pointed out that while the UPA government has extended a financial package for the farmers of Vidarbha, it has done nothing for the peasants of Bundelkhand (UP), whose plight is equally tragic and so deserve a package.

He cited that while the Manmohan Singh government was setting up power projects in most states, UP was being neglected. The chief minister alleged that the Centre was putting obstacles in the states’ effort to make it self-reliant in electricity generation.

He blamed the Centre for poor industrial growth, saying incentives extended to neighbouring Uttaranchal, spelt trouble for the state, which could witness flight of industrial units to the hilly state.