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I won’t join Union Cabinet: Mulayam

Mulayam Singh Yadav

LUCKNOW: Former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister and Samajwadi Party president Mulayam Singh has said that he won’t be joining the Manmohan Singh Government.

Reacting to widespread speculation that some Samajwadi Party members would be inducted as Union Ministers in the next Cabinet reshuffle, the former Chief Minister counted himself out of the contention, indicating that the same condition might not apply to other SP leaders.

Addressing a press conference on Wednesday, the former Chief Minister said he would concentrate on leading the party in next year’s Lok Sabha polls. He said he had told his party workers that as of now no discussions had been held between him and the Prime Minister on the possibility of the SP joining the Government.

He reiterated that the SP had saved the country by supporting the UPA Government on the nuclear deal.

Meanwhile, expressing his anger at the Mayawati Government’s decision to suspend work on the Jayaprakash Narayan International Institute and raze the four-pillared structure at the Vikramaditya Marg crossing here, the SP chief demanded that Chief Minister remove her statue installed at the Bahujan Prerna Kendra here. The former Chief Minister warned Ms. Mayawati that if she failed to respond to his demand, the statue would be bulldozed when the Samajwadi Party returns to power.

Mr. Singh said statues erected during one’s lifetime were an insult to Indian culture.

The SP president said he had no objection to the BSP founder Kanshi Ram’s statue, which was also placed in the Prerna Kendra.

Demanding reconstruction of the four-pillared structure which commemorated the political philosophy (“Chaukhamba Raj”) of Ram Manohar Lohia, Mr. Singh said work on the JP International Centre should be re-started soon. He said moves to devalue the contributions of JP and Lohia would not be tolerated by the Samajwadi Party.

The Vikramaditya Crossing structure has been razed to make way for a statue of Bhimrao Ambedkar. Stating that he was not opposed to Dr. Ambedkar’s statue, Mr. Singh indicated that it could be erected elsewhere. He accused the Chief Minister of misusing public money and alleged that land was being forcibly and illegally acquired by the State Government for building structures. Stones worth crores of rupees used in the construction of structures in the previous BSP regime had reportedly been sold for about Rs.30 lakh, the Samajwadi chief alleged.

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I won’t join Union Cabinet: Mulayam

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