Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati carried out her oft-repeated warnings of withdrawing the support of 17 BSP MPs accusing the Congress-led coalition of "neglect, step-motherly treatment and negative approach" towards her state and on the issue of runaway inflation.
At a press conference here, she distributed copies of her letter to President Pratibha Patil withdrawing the support, which was also sent to Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee, Vice President Hamid Ansari and UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi.
The withdrawal of support by BSP, which comes at a time when the government is involved in a serious stand off with the Left parties on the Indo-US nuclear deal, does not really threaten the existence of the UPA government as such.
But, if the Left parties choose to withdraw support of their 59 MPs, then the BSP decision could put pressure on the government to look for support from other sources like BSP's rival SP which has 39 MPs.
In a House with an effective strength of 543, the UPA enjoys support of 237 members
