The Congress’ move, timed on the eve of a crucial session of the Vidhan Sabha, is a major blow to the UP govt but does not bring it down.
LUCKNOW: The Congress’s love-hate relationship with the Mulayam Singh Yadav government finally ended on Wednesday when the party withdrew support to the government citing failure of the Mulayam government on the law and order front and rampant corruption. The Congress’ move, timed on the eve of a crucial session of the Vidhan Sabha, is a major blow to the Mulayam government but does not bring it down.
UP Congress president Salman Khursheed and senior party leader Pramod Tiwari announced the decision at a crowded press conference here on Wednesday evening. “The decision was driven by the apprehension that the upcoming elections might not be held in a free and fearless atmosphere under the Mulayam regime,” Khursheed said. The decision is being seen as a logical conclusion as Congress leaders had been lambasting the government on a range of issues over the past year.
Tiwari said the Nithari serial killings and the Mulayam government’s “attempts to shield the culprits and misguide investigations” was also an important factor. “Mulayam had promised to make UP an Uttam Pradesh but he turned it into an ‘apaharan’ pradesh (state of kidnappings),” he remarked.
The Samajwadi Party (SP) is, however, putting up a brave face. “The Congress withdrawal does not affect our majority in the Assembly… we had already counted them out,” SP general secretary and PWD Minister Shivpal Yadav told reporters.
He said the SP had not withdrawn support to the Centre’s UPA government.
Even with the 16 Congress MLAs walking away, Mulayam has the support of 207 MLAs while the majority mark is 201. But things might be dramatically different if the 33 MLAs of the Loktantrik Bahujan Dal (LBD), defectors from the BSP supporting the SP, decide to play truant. The government might face nervous moments on January 25 when the vote of thanks on the Governor’s address would be passed.
If the Opposition demands voting on it, Mulayam might find it difficult to keep his numbers intact as there is widespread disaffection within the ruling party ranks itself. There are also reports of the BSP and Congress trying to wean away a section of the LBD MLAs.
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