Mulayam Singh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party feels DMK’s ‘hard bargaining’ doesn’t pose a threat to the government ‘as of now’. In case there is a crisis, the SP brass will ‘consult the party and take decision only after serious introspections.’ But in a clear signal to the Manmohan Singh government, the SP’s top leadership noted today in Delhi as well as in Lucknow that they were ‘already providing outside support’ to the UPA-II government.
While the DMK has 18 members in the Lok Sabha, the Hindi heartland-based party has 22 MPs in the Lower House. A few months ago, when the Congress Party was facing the anger of its ally, Trinamool Congress, over joint operation against the Maoists, Mulayam Singh Yadav had met Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and offered the SP’s support in case the Congress wanted to dump Trinamool.
Today, the SP called an ‘emergency’ press conference to complain about how Mayawati government in Uttar Pradesh has unleashed ‘terror’ on SP workers and leaders ahead of its planned protest programmes all over the state from March 7 to 9. But the focus of the interaction remained on the DMK-Congress standoff and a possible SP role.
In Lucknow, Mulayam Singh said, “As of now, there is no threat to the Central government.” In Delhi, Yadav’s confidant and veteran leader Mohan Singh termed the present situation a the tussle for power inside the UPA and said, “We will sit silently and see this drama”. But Singh didn’t rule out the possibility of supporting the Congress if need be. He simply said, “Earlier (2009) we had supported the UPA and paid penalty for it. This time, if at all the Congress seeks our support we will have to discuss it inside the party.”
The SP, however, doesn’t see any possibility of any other government taking over from the UPA following any collapse of the present government. “There are no talks of an alternative government. The UPA allies too are not thinking of an alternative,” said Mohan Singh.
The SP leadership, which will face the Assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh next year, is clear that the Congress is a leser evil than the BJP. “We can never support the BJP as it will erode our base of Muslim votes. This is the prime reason why we had to side with the Congress even if the Congress regularly tried to sideline us,” said a senior SP leader.
Privately, the SP leadership feels the standoff between the DMK and Congress is because of extraneous reasons and not just for three additional seats the Congress is demanding in Tamil Nadu. The SP also categorically stated that so far, no talks with the Congress had taken place in the backdrop of these recent developments.