— Photo: PTI

SEES A CONSPIRACY: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati addressing a press conference at Vidhan Bhawan in Lucknow on Wednesday.

LUCKNOW : Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati on Wednesday defended Governor T.V. Rajeswar's description of the Mulayam Singh Government as "unconstitutional" and accused the Samajwadi Party and the Bharatiya Janata Party of having a secret understanding.

At a press meet at Vidhan Bhawan here, she alleged that the two parties were trying to create communal tension in the State. She saw a big conspiracy behind Tuesday's blasts in Gorakhpur.

Addressing the joint sitting of the legislature on May 21, the Governor said an atmosphere of ``anarchy'' had prevailed in the State in the last four years and that ``the people's verdict was ridiculed by forming an unconstitutional government after splitting political parties.''

The Chief Minister's defence of the Governor's remark came minutes after the motion of thanks on the Governor's address was passed by voice vote in the House, without the customary debate and the Chief Minister's reply, amidst pandemonium.

The SP members stormed the well of the House and resorted to sloganeering.

With the proceedings over by 11.23 a.m., Speaker Sukhdev Rajbhar adjourned the House sine die.

Guesthouse incident

Ms. Mayawati said the anarchy created by the SP in the House showed that Mr. Mulayam Singh had not learnt a lesson from his electoral defeat.

She recalled the June 2, 1995 State Guesthouse incident in which her party (BSP) MLAs were ``kidnapped by SP men'' and there was a ``threat'' to her life.

Ms. Mayawati slammed the then Speaker Kesari Nath Tripathi of the BJP for sitting on a petition to disqualify BSP defectors. The petition was now in the Supreme Court.

She charged the saffron party with aiding in the constitution of the "unconstitutional" SP Government. She regretted that the BJP remained silent when the SP members did not allow the House to function.

When the House assembled, Mohd. Azam Khan (SP) demanded that the reference to the "unconstitutional Government" be deleted from the Governor's address.

BJP leader Om Prakash Singh and Congress Legislature Party leader Pramod Tiwari raised the Gorakhpur blasts and sought a discussion.

But the SP members stormed the well and disrupted the proceedings. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Lalji Verma accused the SP of hijacking the House. When the din refused to die down, the Speaker got the motion of thanks passed by voice vote and adjourned the House sine die. Before that, the BJP staged a walkout on the Gorakhpur issue.

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