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Wednesday, Jul 02, 2008
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Samajwadi Party keeps UNPA guessing

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: With the Samajwadi Party refusing to reveal its mind on the Indo-U.S. nuclear deal till July 3, other constituents of the United National Progressive Alliance (UNPA) are busy trying to assess the emerging situation in a bid to draw their respective party lines.

Particularly busy on Tuesday was the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) with senior leader K. Yerrannaidu meeting Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary Prakash Karat, UNPA constituent and Indian National Lok Dal leader Om Prakash Chauthala.

After meeting Mr. Chauthala and Mr. Karat, the TDP leader told The Hindu that he was just trying to take stock of the developments ahead of Thursday’s meeting. “Instead of going by what is being said in the media, we want to make sure for ourselves the respective party positions on the issue.”

As for the possibility of the UNPA arrangement getting unstuck should the Samajwadi Party decide to go with the Congress on the nuclear deal, Mr. Yerrannaidu refused to speculate on such an eventuality at this juncture.

Earlier in the day, the Samajwadi Party leadership continued to speak about the Congress with the guarded tone and tenor it has adopted since its position on the deal became crucial to keeping the United Progressive Alliance government alive.

Asked whether the party continued to consider the Congress as beyond the pale, the former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mulayam Singh said: “In politics, we can have differences but any party can be an ally.”

About Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati’s charge that the Samajwadi Party was planning to align with a party (Congress) that wanted to do business with a country (the U.S.) which had Muslim blood on its hands, SP general secretary Amar Singh said it was unfortunate that attempts are being made to communalise the issue.

Also, the Samajwadi Party sought to point out that Ms. Mayawati had been supportive of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi after the 2002 carnage.

Railway Minister Lalu Prasad met Congress president Sonia Gandhi. Confident that the Samajwadi Party would support the deal, he told reporters that both the government and the nuclear deal would survive.

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