UPA safe even if SP withdraws support: Cong

Lucknow, July 3 (UNI) AICC treasurer and CWC member Motilal Vora today claimed the threat of Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav to withdraw support from the UPA would not affect the Congress-led government at the Centre.

''The UPA will complete its full term and Mr Yadav's threat can only be termed a public stunt,'' Mr Vora observed.

Talking to mediapersons here on his day-long visit to the Uttar Pradesh capital, the former state governor alleged the law and order situation was in bad shape in the state and people wanted a change of guard.

''The Congress is preparing itself for the assembly polls and would be a viable alternative before the people in the polls,'' he asserted.

Mr Vora claimed several sops, including the unemployment allowance and Kanya Vidya Dhan Yojna, announced by UP would not bring any gain to SP, as people were fed-up with the deterioting law and order situation and power crisis.

Admitting that Congress was supporting the SP-led government in UP, while SP was supporting the UPA, he said, ''We are supporting Mr Yadav to prevent communal forces from gaining power in UP.'' The Congress leader maintained if the SP was so serious to withdraw support from the UPA, then it should talk to the leaders of other alliance partners about its decision.

He said the Congress was playing the role of a responsible opposition in UP and would like to wait for the people's verdict during the assembly polls.

Raking up the issue of rise in the prices of essential commodities, the CWC member said all efforts were being made to bring down prices and in the last few days positive results had come out.

''We are holding the meeting of Congress CMs on July 5 over the issue, while all agencies concerned with the price of the essential commodities have been engaged in the task of bringing down prices,'' he underlined.

Earlier, Mr Vora visited the Indira Gandhi Prathisthan here and reviewed the progress of its construction.

Expressing his satisfication over the progress, he said about 50 per cent work had been completed and the Prathisthan, one of the largest in the country, would open in February next year.

Mr Vora said till now Rs 44 crore had been spent on the project out of a total of Rs 101 crore budget, which was being monitored by the High Court on a monthly basis.

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