NLP flip flops on support to UPA
New Delhi, Jul 18 (UNI) A day after the National Loktantrik Party (NLP) issued a whip to its lone Lok Sabha member to vote against the UPA government during trust vote, it said today that the party can ''rethink''the decision during its national executive meet on Sunday.
NLP president Mohd Arshad Khan claimed that if the government agreed to implement the recommendations of the Rangnath Commission recommendations on minorities and cleared a list of 17 Hindu castes from Uttar Pradesh to be included as SCs, then the July 20 national executive committee may ''rethink'' on the trust vote. ''The government cannot do anything in two days but the paper work can at least start,'' he said.
But at the same time, Mr Khan also alleged that the Samajwadi Party was trying to make him change his stand on the trust vote.
''I was offered Rs 15 crore to vote in favour of the UPA government,'' he told reporters here.
He claimed the party took the decision to vote against the UPA as the government had not cared to draft a letter seeking its support for the confidence motion. ''They wrote to Mulayam Singh Yadav but not the smaller outfits who had been supporting the government for a long time,'' he added.
Baleshwar Yadav, who had quit the Samajwadi Party earlier, is the NLP MP from Padrauna Lok Sabha constituency in Uttar Pradesh.
The
Samajwadi
Party,
while
submitting
a
fresh
letter
of
support
for
the
UPA
government
to
President
Pratibha
Patil,
had
claimed
on
July
nine
that
the
NLP
MP
would
vote
in
favour
of
UPA
during
the
trust
vote.
''They
never
asked
us
before
handing
over
the
letter.'' UNI
NAB
RR
KN1829