SP pledges support to UPA govt

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Minutes after the Left parties announced their withdrawal of support to the UPA government, the Samajwadi Party, with 39 MPs in it kitty, pledged its support to the government here on Tuesday on the Indo-US nuclear deal. A meeting of the SP’s parliamentary party said the party is united in saving the UPA government and the nuclear deal. However, about 10 of the SP members of Parliament, including chief whip Mohan Singh, were absent in the crucial meeting.

‘‘We will issue a three-line whip asking all MPs who have been elected on the SP symbol to vote in support of the nuclear deal and to save the UPA government,’’ SP general secretary Amar Singh told reporters after the meeting. Both Singh and SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav also rubbished the reports that their archrival Mayawati is poaching about 12 MPs from the SP to her party. They even paraded some of the Muslim MPs in the press conference. Singh also met Congress president Sonia Gandhi later in Tuesday evening. SP’s close ally RLD, led by Ajit Singh, has also said that they will support the nuclear deal.

‘‘The deal has been welcomed by Muslims across the state including in Deoband, Saharanpur, Varanasi, Kanpur and Bareilly,’’ Yadav said. He added the 10 MPs, who did not attend the meeting, stayed away for ‘‘personal reasons’’. Yadav added that the SP is not in the run for the Speaker’s post or any ministerial posts in the government’’, he said.

He hoped that the Left parties will not side with the BJP in Parliament in the wake of a confidence motion. ‘‘It is the responsibility of the Congress to clear the doubts of Left parties on the nuclear deal,’’ Yadav said.

In a resolution, the SP parliamentary party said communal forces pose a serious challenge to the unity, freedom and integrity of the country. As the date of elections draws near communal forces have strengthened their activities to divide the nation. ‘‘If secular forces do not finish of the communal elements the spectre of division of the country will continue to loom,’’ it said.