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Sonia gives 'patient hearing' to Mulayam and co

In an effort to capture power by toppling the Uttar Pradesh government, which is already in trouble following the withdrawal of support by eight independent legislators, Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav met Congress president Sonia Gandhi at her 10 Janpath residence in New Delhi on Sunday.

SP general secretary Amar Singh and Communist Party of India-Marxist leader Harkishan Singh Surjeet accompanied Yadav, while Congress veteran Manmohan Singh assisted Gandhi.

"The Mayawati government has been reduced to a minority and we have apprised Soniaji of the ground situation in Uttar Pradesh... Our party can form the government with the support of the Congress," Amar Singh said after the meeting.

"This opportunistic Mayawati government has to go now. It does not have the requisite strength in the assembly," he said.

He said the Congress president had given them a patient hearing during the meeting, which lasted 40 minutes.

The Congress high command is not willing to reveal its strategy right now because the party's chief in UP, Arun Kumar Munna, is not keen to have any truck with the Samajwadi Party.

Munna has told the high command that the party, which has 25 legislators in the state, would disillusion its supporters by tying up with the SP.

"Obviously, our leadership has to take all aspects into consideration before giving any sort of assurance to the SP that it is ready to support it," a Congress leader told rediff.com

"Yes, it is a tricky situation. We are gradually rebuilding our base in UP and the central leadership knows that nothing can be hurried at this juncture," said Wasim Ahmed, a former member of the Rajya Sabha.

However, Amar Singh said with the "BJP in shambles in UP and the BSP unable to wield widespread support, an SP-Congress government in the state appears inevitable".

Surjeet said the Congress and the SP had to come together to defeat the communal forces.

PTI

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