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No more cooperation with Congress: SP

The party also announced fielding of at least 120 candidates for the Gujarat assembly polls.

"We will not beg at the Congress doors any more; Cooperation with it ends today. We will now maintain equi-distance from both the Congress and BJP," SP general secretary Amar Singh said in New Delhi.

The Congress was practising the politics of "personal animosity, hatred and contempt", he said.

There was a "secret understanding" between the top leadership of the Congress and BJP when the BSP-BJP coalition was formed in UP, he added.

He said the Congress asked its Members of the Legislative Assembly in UP to abstain from voting despite appeals to senior Congress leaders Manmohan Singh, Motilal Vora and K Natwar Singh to help the rebel BJP candidate backed by the opposition.

Claiming that Monday's developments showed that the BSP-BJP coalition had lost majority, he said the governor should now convene a special session of the assembly to test the majority of the government.

He demanded that the governor should now "publicly retract" his statement that the Mayawati government enjoyed majority.

"It is like Kumbhakarna waking up from his deep slumber," he said referring to Congress CLP leader Pramod Tiwari demanding a special session of the assembly on Tuesday.

Amar Singh said during campaigning in Gujarat, the SP will tell the minorities that there was no difference between the BJP and Congress, which sheds "crocodile tears" for them.

He was noncommittal when asked whether the SP would help the Congress lead a coalition government at the Centre if the next Lok Sabha polls threw up a hung verdict.

"Where is the situation? Let the situation arise, then our high command will sit and decide," he said.

The Congress wanted secularism to be practised only in Delhi and not in UP, he said.

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