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Wednesday, Jul 09, 2008
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Revolt by another MP

Atiq Khan

LUCKNOW: Another Samajwadi Party MP, Jai Prakash Rawat, from Mohanlalganj (Reserved), on Tuesday revolted against the leader, Mulayam Singh’s decision to support the United Progressive Alliance on the issue of India-U.S. nuclear deal. On Monday, Munawwar Hasan, Muzaffarnagar MP, opposed Mr. Singh’s decision.

Mr. Rawat told a press conference here that he would defy the party whip if the UPA government sought a trust vote. He was among a dozen MPs who reportedly stayed away from an SP parliamentary party meeting, held in New Delhi earlier in the day, where Mr. Singh pledged support to the government.

Mr. Rawat claimed that these MPs, including Muslim members, were unhappy with the nuclear deal, and would come out in the open when a trial of strength took place in the House. But he named only Mr. Hasan when he was asked how many MPs from the minority community were in the rebel group.Mohan Singh (Deoria), Reoti Raman Singh (Allahabad), Ramji Lal Suman (Firozabad) and Kunwar Sarvraj Singh (Aonla) are among the other MPs who were reportedly absent at the meeting. SP sources, however, claimed that they had sent prior information about their absence and ruled out the possibility of their deserting Mr. Mulayam Singh.

Mr. Rawat denied that he was in touch with Chief Minister Mayawati of the Bahujan Samaj Party.

The SP has 39 MPs in the Lok Sabha, all from U.P. But its actual strength is less than that. Raj Babbar, MP from Agra, and Beni Prasad Verma (Kaiserganj), who earlier rebelled against the leadership, left the party in 2006-2007, but they are still technically counted as party MPs. Two other MPs Atiq Ahmed (Phulpur) and Afzal Ansari (Ghazipur) are in jail on murder charges in two cases.

Congress confident

The Congress, however, is not perturbed at the possibility of the SP rebels voting against the nuclear deal. While Mr. Verma campaigned for the Congress in the Assembly polls and is understood to be seeking party ticket to contest from Gonda in the next Lok Sabha election, Mr. Babbar has reportedly been approached by the Congress to contest from Fatehpur Sikri near Agra.

“They may not be in the SP, but will support the Congress on the nuclear deal,” said a senior party leader.

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