'What's UNPA without Samajwadi Party?'

New Delhi, Jul 8 (UNI) The Samajwadi Party today refused to comment as to whether the UNPA, founded by itself, was intact but categorically said that without his party the Alliance had no meaning.

''What is UNPA without the Samajwadi Party,'' said party General Secretary Ram Gopal Verma talking to reporters after the party's Parliamentary Board Meeting.

Though, Mr Yadav was attacking UNPA allies for declaring it as ousted from the Alliance over its support to the Congress on the nuclear deal, he refused to give a direct reply to the question about the fate of the Alliance and his party's place in it.

Instead, he sought to point out to reporters that his party had about 50 MPs in Parliament while all other constituents combined together did not reach that figure.

Mr Yadav said his party had done what it believed to be right under the circumstances, as for it, fighting communalism was the most urgent task.

Without naming the INLD or the AGP, he said ''Those who want to go with the BJP were free to do so.'' SP general secretary Amar Singh had already said that ''his party was ready to make any sacrifice,'' when told that he had been declared as out of the Alliance by INLD chief Om Prakash Chautala.

The alliance of originally seven regional parties was founded over a year ago on the principle of equidistance from the Congress and the BJP and was projected a third political alternative.

However, of late the increasing bonhomie between the S P and the Congress had irritated other UNPA constituents. And the formal declaration of support for the Congress by the party leaders last week and by its Parliamentary Board today has made the UNPA meaningless for the Party.

UNI NAZ MIR AS2028