Four more RLD MLAs from UP reach J&K

Another batch of four Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) MLAs from Uttar Pradesh on Tuesday arrived in Srinagar to join their nine colleagues, already in the city, to foil any 'poaching' bid by the Bahujan Samaj Party-Bharatiya Janata Party government following withdrawal of their party's support to the Mayawati government.

The four MLAs are Pratap Choudhary, Virendra Singh, Ranveer Singh and Kuka Bhai Hamid, sources said.

The first batch of MLAs, headed by Samar Pal Singh, arrived on Monday and drove straight to a five-star hotel overlooking the world famous Dal Lake, the sources said.

Besides Samar Pal Singh, the group comprised Choudhary Babu Lal, Jaswant Singh, Tej Pal, Ganga Prasad Pushkar, Ajay Kumar, Prem Singh, Raj Pal Singh and Swami Omvesh.

The 14-member RLD withdrew support to the Mayawati government last week after RLD chief Ajit Singh resigned from the Union Cabinet, plunging the BSP-BJP coalition in crisis.

Significantly, Congress president Sonia Gandhi, during her three-day visit to the Kashmir valley, had said her party was not averse to joining hands with Mulayam Singh's Samajwadi Party and the RLD to counter the BSP-BJP led coalition in UP.