SP offers support to UPA if it drops Trinamool

Samajwadi party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav on Sunday admitted that he had offered "issue based support to the United Progressive Alliance provided it drops Trinamool Congress from the alliance." 

Asked at a press conference if reports that he had offered his party's support to UPA-II on the condition that it will have to drop Trinanmool Congress were true, he said, "They were indeed true. But our support will be issue-based."

Pointing out that the UPA government's policies were against common people, he said, "We have opposed their anti-people policies in the Lok Sabha. Our support to them will be based on consensus over issues like national security, price rise and the plight of farmers."

He said his party, which has 20 members in the Lok Sabha, was 'tolerating' the UPA presently only to keep communal forces at bay.

The SP chief's comments come after party spokesman Mohan Singh categorically said on Saturday, "We are not eager to join the UPA government, nor has there been any invitation to join it."

Asked about the Maoist issue and if the Centre was taking the right steps as far as tackling the problem was concerned, Mulayam Singh Yadav said the issue could not be resolved only by using force against them. "Some demands of the Maoists are justified. We have to talk to them and find out why these fratricidal killings are taking place," he said.

Pointing out that Naxalites existed only in three or four places in Uttar Pradesh when he was chief minister, Yadav said, "I held talks with them and solved their various problems like education and drinking water and also discussed developmental issues. We have proved that problems can be solved through discussions."

All major parties were unanimous in their concern over the Maoist menace, but the government failed to convene an all-party meeting to find out ways to tackle the problem, the SP chief said.

On the Mayawati-led Uttar Pradesh government, the SP chief said, "Because she knows that Samajwadi Party is her greatest adversary, she is ordering the killing of our partymen. Her government has booked one lakh of our party activists on false charges. She has also resorted to grabbing large tracts of land in the name of luminaries."

Asked about criticism that he was perpetrating dynastic rule in Uttar Pradesh politics, Yadav said his entire family was participating in the 'struggle' for a cause.

Queried if the Samajwadi Party, with which the West Bengal Socialist Party has merged, would contest next year's state assembly elections, he said it would be decided by his party's state chief Kiranmoy Nanda, who is a minister in the Left Front government.

The SP has very good relations with the Left, he said.