Karat meets PM on UP, reiterates CPM stand

A day after the Congress Working Committee (CWC) left the decision to impose President's rule in Uttar Pradesh to the government, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today met CPI(M) General Secretary Prakash Karat.

The move signalled the government's intention to go ahead with the move, although Singh was learnt to have told Karat that the government was only weighing the options.

Karat said the CPI(M) would oppose the move in Parliament. "I have conveyed to him our opposition to the misuse of Article 356. There is absolutely no change in our stance," Karat said.

Congress sources said the party feared the embarrassment it might have to face if the Left, along with parties like the the Biju Janata Dal, Shiromani Akali Dal and the JD(U) opposed the proclamation imposing President's rule in Parliament. The Congress would then have to take BJP's support, a party leader said.

"If elections are held in the next two months, Mulayam Singh Yadav will gain from sympathy wave. This will serve neither the BSP nor us. But if he is allowed to continue, he may use the administrative machinery in the elections. It's a Catch-22 situation situation for us," a senior Congress leader said.