New Delhi, July 5
The Samajwadi Party (SP) today formally announced its support for the Congress-led UPA government, marking the beginning of the disintegration of the fledgling United National Progressive Alliance (UNPA).
The SP, which has of late been giving clear signal about its new-found love for the Congress, asserted that it was ready to make any “sacrifice” to keep communal parties out of power.
Addressing a press conference here, SP general secretary Amar Singh said he did not want the BJP to take advantage of the current political crisis, triggered by the Left’s threat to withdraw support to the UPA government on the Indo-US nuclear deal.
“L.K. Advani is more lethal than George Bush…the threat of Bush will come to an end, but the threat of Advani is likely to come (after the elections in 2009),’’ Amar Singh said.
That the SP relations with the Left have turned sour because of its decision to support the UPA became quite evident when Amar Singh said the Left might choose to go with the BJP in Parliament and make the government fall, but his party would not do any such thing.
After the endorsement of the deal by former President APJ Abdul Kalam, it was not a question of supporting UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi or Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, but doing what was in the interest of the nation, the SP leader said.
Finance minister P. Chidambaram and petroleum minister Murli Deora earned the wrath of the SP leader, who blamed them for runaway inflation. Asked if he had demanded their sacking, Amar Singh said he was nobody to make such a demand.
His comments came shortly after an incensed Om Prakash Chautala, chief of the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD), which is a constituent of the UNPA, indicated that a split in the Third Front was imminent. However, a final decision would be taken at Sunday’s meeting of the UNPA.
Chautala, the former Haryana Chief Minister, said he was pained to learn that the SP was no longer a part of the UNPA, despite Mulayam Singh Yadav being its founder member. The Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), another constituent of the AGP, meanwhile, threatened to walk out of the UNPA if the SP remained part of it and indicated that the party might have adjustment with the
BJP.
