The Hindu : We will go it alone, says Mulayam

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Jan 18, 2004

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National

We will go it alone, says Mulayam

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI. JAN. 17. The Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister and Samajwadi Party leader, Mulayam Singh Yadav, has again cautioned the Congress against a tie-up with the Bahujan Samaj Party in the coming Lok Sabha elections.

"The BSP is the most corrupt, casteist and opportunistic party, if the Congress aligns with it, then it will have a lot of explaining to do before the people,' he said.

Mr. Yadav has, over the past few days, repeatedly asked the Congress to refrain from aligning with the BSP, but resisted overtures to join either the fronts being cobbled together by the Congress, or the Left parties. He said so far, except the initial phone call, there had been no initiative from the Congress to talk to the SP leadership. "She has neither met us nor have we been invited for a meeting."

He made it clear that his party would prefer to go it alone in the Lok Sabha elections and would not be a part of any front but give and take issue-based support. He cited the example of Uttar Pradesh where the Congress had extended issue-based support to him.

Mr. Yadav, who arrived here last night, met the Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, the Deputy Prime Minister, L.K. Advani, and the Union Agriculture Minister, Rajnath Singh. Senior party leader, Amar Singh, was present during the meetings.

Interacting with the media, after meeting Mr. Vajpayee, the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister said that he requested the Prime Minister to give State Governments the authority to sanction up to 3000 MW power plants.

He said that now a State Government could sanction a power plant with a capacity of only 500 MW, and for bigger power projects it had to get the permission of the Union Environment Ministry and the process usually took at least two years. "No industrialist is going to wait for two years for such a plant,'' he said, adding that the Prime Minister assured him that he would consider the proposal.

Mr. Yadav said he also requested Mr. Vajpayee to lift the conditions imposed by the Centre on the release of Rs. 485 crores for sugarcane farmers, and asserted that it should be the right of the State Governments to decide the price of sugarcane.

After meeting Mr. Advani, Mr. Yadav said that regarding the Ayodhya issue he would be happy if both the parties to the dispute reached a consensus. "If that does not happen then everybody should wait for the court verdict."

Mr. Yadav said that he also raised the issue of POTA detainees and demanded the immediate release of the Uttar Pradesh MLA, Raghuraj Pratap Singh, and the MDMK leader, Vaiko. "I have been saying from the very beginning that POTA will be used to settle scores with political opponents and I have been proved correct".

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