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Mulayam meets Manmohan

Gargi Parsai

Mulayam Singh

NEW DELHI: Stung by the charges made by the Congress leaders against him, Samajwadi Party president Mulayam Singh on Tuesday met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and sought his and party president Sonia Gandhi’s intervention to rein in AICC leaders.

“We have full faith in Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi. We are confident they will find a solution [to get over the impasse in seat-sharing talks for Lok Sabha elections in Uttar Pradesh],” Mr. Mulayam Singh said as he, accompanied by party general secretary Amar Singh, came out of the 7 Race Course residence of the Prime Minister after nearly a hour-long meeting. They submitted to Dr. Singh a three-page statement on the charges levelled against the SP leaders, which was released at a press conference earlier.

On the threat meted out by the party over support to the United Progressive Alliance in protest against inadequate steps taken by the government on action against terrorist camps in Pakistan, both the leaders said that the Congress and the SP “were together.” They will have a meeting of the National Executive after January 15 when further steps will be taken.

“Disdain day”

The SP will be observing Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati’s birthday on January 15 as “disdain day” against the charges of extortion of money.Asked about the Prime Minister’s reaction, Mr Mulayam Singh said there was no immediate reaction but they always had a sense of satisfaction after meeting Dr. Singh.

Mr. Amar Singh, who had been authorised by the Central Parliamentary Board to work out seat-sharing with the Congress for Uttar Pradesh, expressed the confidence that things would work out in the interest of keeping secular parties intact.

“There is no reason to get panicky on the pre-poll alliance with the Congress. We have only declared seats on which Congress made no claim.”

No intention

Mr. Amar Singh said that Noor Bano had no intention of contesting from Rampur from where the party has again fielded sitting MP Jayaprada. “As far as we know Begum Noor Bano wants to contest from Moradabad as her son is fighting on a Bahujan Samaj Party ticket from Rampur.”

“So far as Unnao is concerned, AICC general secretary in charge of Uttar Pradesh, Digvijay Singh, wants the seat for Annu Tandon, to which we are not agreeable.”

The party general secretary said the charges levelled by Mr. Digvijay Singh against Mr. Mulayam Singh and the SP through his media briefings were “trivial.” “We are not bothered about the trivial charges but about the terrorism by Pakistan and about the cohesion and unity of secular of secular forces.”

Willing to talk

Mr. Amar Singh said he was more than willing to talk to anybody in the Congress for seat- sharing. “It is the Congress Party’s call to decide whether they want to keep Digvijay Singh on our head or not.”

Earlier expressing “hurt,” Mr. Mulayam Singh released to the media a statement that said that he had nothing to be afraid of in the cases filed against him.

He denied charges contained in some newspaper reports published on Tuesday which quoted Congress sources to say that Samajwadi Party was having a political alliance with Congress “to further vested interests of certain industrial houses and to seek government accommodations in New Delhi for its leaders and bail out from corruption cases.”

The Congress had described the SP’s “unilateral” declaration of candidates for 52 of 80 Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh, as “pressure tactic.”

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