Mulayam's SP may forge ties with Congress in UP

Defence Minister and Samajwadi Party president Mulayam Singh Yadav says his party would not have any understanding with the Congress at the national level, but did not rule out an alliance with the party at the regional level.

In the political resolution adopted at the party's two-day national executive committee meeting in Calcutta, the party said a decision about the Congress-SP alliance in Uttar Pradesh would be taken at the appropriate time.

The SP declared that its main objective was to fight communal and casteist forces and establish a secular and socialist democratic order.

Yadav, however, ruled out the possibility of a mid-term election considering the Congress's assurance that it would continue to support the UF.

Stating that his party would oppose any attempts at constructing a temple at the disputed site in Ayodhya, Yadav said the youth should be motivated to start a "second freedom struggle" against economic backwardness.

Yadav said the Bharatiya Janata Party-Bahujan Samaj Party alliance was unprincipled. ''It says something in the evening and something quite different the next morning.''

The BJP, he added, is trying to destabilise the Inder Kumar Gujral government to ''fulfil its dream of coming to power''.