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No rift with RLD: Mulayam

Special Correspondent

Assembly election to be crucial, says Samajwadi Party chief

Photo: Subir Roy

PATTING HIMSELF: Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav addressing partymen on completion of three years of his Government at the party headquarters in Lucknow on Tuesday.

LUCKNOW: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav on Tuesday hit out at status quoist parties who he said were plotting his downfall, and glossed over his differences with Rashtriya Lok Dal president and coalition partner Chaudhary Ajit Singh.

Dismissing talk of a rift between the Samajwadi Party and the RLD, the Chief Minister said the so-called differences were only limited to news columns.

The RLD president had declined to attend the function to mark three years of the Mulayam Government despite a personal request from the Chief Minister.

Addressing a press conference on completion of three years of the Samajwadi Party-led coalition Government, Mr. Yadav said while the opposition parties wanted to see his back he was more concerned about the welfare of the deprived and downtrodden sections of the population.

The Chief Minister said the biggest challenge in his three years in office had been ameliorating the sufferings of the weaker sections of society. Stating that his Government was committed to the cause of social justice, Mr. Yadav said while the other parties were fighting against him, he was struggling for the cause of the common man. He said jobs for the jobless, unemployment allowance and social welfare schemes were a step in this direction.

Waxing eloquent over the achievements of his three-year-old Government, Mr. Yadav claimed that the power scenario had improved and in the last three years.

Forty- one bridges over big rivers had been completed. In the last 52 years before he took office on August 29, 2003, he added, only 52 bridges were built.

The Chief Minister said the promises made in the Samajwadi Party election manifesto for the 2002 Assembly polls had been fulfilled.

Earlier, addressing the SP workers' convention at the party office, the Chief Minister told his party men that next year's Vidhan Sabha elections would be crucial and if the SP returned to power it would rule the State like the CPI (M) had ruled West Bengal. Mr. Yadav urged the youth cadre and the students to maintain discipline.

Mr. Yadav asked his party men to mobilise the beneficiaries of Kanya Vidya Dhan and unemployment allowance schemes for the benefit of the party in the forthcoming elections.

Referring to the benefits given to farmers by his Government, Mr. Yadav said in the last three years Rs. 18,000 crore worth of sugarcane price dues were paid to the growers. He added that under the earlier regimes, Rs 11,000 crore was paid to the cane farmers.

While the Chief Minister stopped short of criticising former Prime Minister V. P. Singh, SP vice-president Janeshwar Mishra dubbed the Jan Morcha convenor as a "faqir" (mendicant) and said he was capable of casting himself in many disguises.

SP general secretary Amar Singh in his address said, without naming Mr. V. P. Singh, that he had deceived Mr. Yadav. He said the Chief Minister had backed his claims for becoming the Prime Minister of the Janata Dal Government despite serious reservations expressed by other party leaders. Without naming Raj Babbar, Mr. Singh said he earned his political spurs under Mr. Yadav yet he stabbed him in the back.

Mr. Singh assailed the CPI general secretary A. B. Bardhan for supporting the Jan Morcha.

The conference was also addressed by senior SP leader Beni Prasad Verma, Akhilesh Singh Yadav and Mohan Singh.

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