LUCKNOW: As Uttar Pradesh inched towards possible imposition of President's rule, the Samajwadi Party withdrew its support to the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Government at the Centre. The party has 42 MPs in the Lok Sabha and 16 in the Rajya Sabha. The Budget session of Parliament is due to begin on February 23.

Making the announcement at the party convention here on Wednesday, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister and SP president Mulayam Singh appealed to the Left parties to follow suit as the Congress had struck an unholy alliance with communal forces to topple his Government.

Mr. Singh exhorted the party workers to launch an agitation against the Central Government to ensure that the Congress was decimated from Lucknow to Delhi in the coming Assembly elections.

Even as Mr. Singh counselled the cadre to launch a non-violent struggle and establish mass contact with the people, party vice-president Janeshwar Mishra spelt the political mantra of halla bol (assault) on the Congress. Mr. Mishra said that if the Government was dismissed the workers should ensure that Central Government schemes were not implemented in U.P.

Stating that the Congress, the Bharatiya Janata Party and the RSS were in the same league, Mr. Singh said he wondered if his Government was unconstitutional why did the Congress extend support to it. During the BJP's national executive meeting here, Governor T.V. Rajeswar met the former Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, and Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Lal Krishna Advani, to solicit their support on the proposal to dismiss his Government. Both Mr. Vajpayee and Mr. Advani readily agreed, Mr. Singh claimed.

"What more proof is needed of the Congress-BJP nexus?" he added. Mr. Singh alleged that the Governor's report to the Centre was authored by the Congress, the BJP and the BSP.

Mr. Mishra asked the partymen to curb the movements of the Governor on his official tours if and when the State came under President's rule. He said the entire exercise to impose Article 356 was conducted with an eye on the next Presidential election. U.P. was the biggest constituency in the Presidential election and the Congress wanted to thwart the moves of the SP, which was the largest party in the Assembly, from voting in the election.

Party general secretary Amar Singh said the Congress should remember that the former Prime Minister, Narasimha Rao, presided over a Government which was formed through defections. He said the Congress was worried about its political demise in U.P. but the fact of the matter was that the party was already dead in the State.

Mr. Singh said only 13 MLAs were disqualified by the apex court and the country's leading Constitutional experts said the Mulayam Singh Government could not be dismissed. He said the Government would prove its majority on the floor of the Vidhan Sabha on February 26. Mr. Singh said the Congress propaganda had given the cutting edge to the SP.

The party's Rajya Sabha MP, Jaya Bachchan, said the Assembly polls would show where the Congress stood.

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