Congress today played down Samajwadi Party partriach Mulayam Singh Yadav's non-endorsement of its alliance with the regional outfit in Uttar Pradesh and claimed the people in the poll-bound state are in favour of the tie-up.
The Sonia Gandhi-led party said Mulayam's comments opposing the alliance were his personal views.
"Congress has aligned with Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Singh Yadav, and going by the tremendous response to (joint press meet of) Rahul Gandhi and Akhilesh yesterday, it is clear the people of UP favour the alliance between the two young leaders. It is time to support the new leadership," party leader and MP Shashi Tharoor said.
He was addressing a press conference here after releasing a "chargesheet" against the two-decade-old rule of Shiv Sena-BJP combine in the Mumbai civic body, which goes to the polls on February 21.
Asked about Mulayam voicing displeasure over the SP- Congress tie-up for the Assembly polls in the most populated State, the Lok Sabha MP from Thiruvananthapuram said the former UP Chief Minister was entitled to his personal views.
"I am completely against the alliance. I will not campaign for it," Mulayam said yesterday.
Asked whether the tie-up with Samajwadi Party will be extended to the Mumbai civic elections also, Tharoor said his party takes alliance decisions as per local conditions.
Mumbai Congress President Sanjay Nirupam, who was present at the press meet, said it was too late to discuss an alliance with SP for the BMC elections, but his party is open to a post-poll pact with the UP-based party.
"We are open to a post-poll alliance with the Samajwadi Party for betterment of Mumbai," he said.
Referring to the Mumbai civic polls, Tharoor said the civic corporation, which has an annual budget of Rs 38,000 crore, was not efficiently managed by the Sena-BJP combine.
The saffron combine, which had been voted to power four times in the civic body, has no competence to run the civic administration, the diplomat-turned-politician said.
"They have betrayed people with their failure in governance. Rs 1 lakh crore budgetary expenditure is unaudited. A sum of Rs 28,000 crore had been spent on roads in the last 10 years but this year there was 13 per cent rise in number of potholes as compared to the previous year," he said.
Tharoor said the "chargesheet" brought out by the Mumbai Congress highlights the civic body's "failures" related to providing water, roads, garbage disposal, solid waste management and running hospitals and schools.
(Repens BOM23)
Tharoor said the metropolis symbolises the pluralist values espoused by the Congress and appealed to the Mumbaikars to give his party a chance to run India's richest civic body.
To a question on division in Mumbai Congress due to AICC General Secretary Gurudas Kamat's open criticism of Nirupam's style of functioning, Tharoor said the party leadership was aware of the issue.
The General Secretary in-charge (Mohan Prakash) is seized of the matter, the former Union Minister said. "This is an internal matter of the Congress and will be resolved.
Hitting out at the BJP for raising the Ram Mandir issue in Uttar Pradesh, Tharoor said the saffron outfit is not worthy of engaging in serious politics and the move was aimed at polarising society for votes.
Asked about the Budget session of Parliament and whether the demonetisation issue will be raised again by the Opposition, the MP said his party was concerned about the adverse impact of note-ban on the economy.
"Even elementary homework was not done before the decision was announced. Sixty-two notifications were issued in five weeks by RBI (related to note exchange and other norms). Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who spoke of good governance, needs basic lessons in good governance."
"Demonetisation is a classic failure and a disaster for which people will have to pay a heavy price for a long time," the Congress leader said.
