PATNA, 6 May — Samajwadi Party President Mulayam Singh Yadav yesterday said that the newly formed Mayawati-led Uttar Pradesh (UP) government would not last long. "This government of opportunists will fall soon," he told reporters during his visit to Bihar. Calling the new government in UP a "government of the Mafia", Mulayam pointed out that at least 24 legislators of the BSP and BJP have criminal backgrounds.
The Samajwadi Party chief dubbed the Bahujan Samaj Party-Bharatiya Janata Party (BSP-BJP) coalition government in the state as an opportunistic alliance devoid of any political ethics, and said that cracks would surface soon as two dozen alleged Mafia dons, who have been elected, would start demanding their pound of flesh in the government.
The most damaging part of this government is that the credibility of the politicians had suffered immensely in the eyes of the electorate. But Mulayam admitted that Mayawati has the support of the majority in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly at present and blamed the Congress party, which failed to support his attempts to cobble together a coalition government, for this turn of events. He supported party General Secretary Amar Singh’s charges that the Congress was responsible for the formation of the BSP-BJP government in UP.
The Samajwadi chief vowed to expose all those responsible for this unholy alliance. Their only aim was to keep the Samajwadi Party away from power as it was the only party they were afraid of in Delhi. Mulayam said, he would disclose soon the role played by the Congress in Uttar Pradesh.
Mulayam welcomed the Supreme Court verdict making it compulsory for a candidate to declare details of his criminal record before filing his nomination papers but has expressed reservations about the credibility of police records in this regard.
He said that his party had taken the initiative to curb criminalization of politics in the country and the Supreme Court has only vindicated his party’s stand. The only new thing that the court has added is that the candidates will have to declare their assets too, which he supported whole-heartedly.
