‘Cong, SP deal unprincipled’

By Our Special Correspondent

Lucknow

July 4: UP chief minister Mayawati has said that the Congress-Samajwadi Party deal on the nuclear deal is against all healthy democratic traditions and is unprincipled.

"To save its government (at the Centre) the Congress is ready to take support from those leaders whose faces they despised till not very long ago. The Samajwadi Party is also driving a hard bargain because it knows that the Congress is desperate to save the government," she said at a press conference here on Friday. The chief minister termed Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav’s overtures to the Congress as "natakbazi" and said that the Samajwadi Party’s decision to support the Congress-led coalition at the Centre was driven by selfish interests and not national interests or Muslim interests.

"This kind of behaviour does not befit the Samajwadi leader but I have come to know from my sources that the Samajwadi Party will extend its support to the UPA government as soon as the Left parties withdraw (its support) from the coalition. The Samajwadis will extend outside support and in return, all cases against Mr Yadav and his relatives, that are pending with the CBI, will be dropped one by one," she stated.

Ms Mayawati added that the deal between the Congress and the Samajwadi Party, under the cover of the nuclear deal, will soon stand exposed and the entire nation will punish the two in the coming Lok Sabha election. Talking about the nuclear deal, the chief minister said that the UPA government should have put all facts before the people in totality and all parties should have been taken into confidence.