SP launches frontal attack on V P Singh

Lucknow, Jul 10: Calling former prime minister Vishwanath Pratap Singh a 'schemer, conspirator and hypocrite,' Samajwadi Party today alleged his attack on Mulayam Singh Yadav government in Uttar Pradesh was a move ''funded'' and ''sponsored'' by the Congress.

Sparing nothing to condemn the Jan Morcha convenor V P Singh's ''so called'' pro-farmer agitation, various SP leaders including party chief and chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav today said it was ''a Congress-sponsored move to destabilise SP-led state government.'' Mr Singh, who had organised a farmers' dharna at the site of proposed power plant in Dadri, Ghaziabad was termed a ''disaster'' both as UP chief minsiter as well as Prime Minister. ''His tenure would be remembered as the worst for the cause of farmers and downtrodden, despite his sustained clamouring in their favour,'' the SP leaders maintained.

Without naming Mr Singh, the Chief Minister said the former Prime Minister was being used against the SP government. ''I assure the people of UP that my regime will not be deterred by these designs and will overcome the undue onslaught,'' he added.

He called upon party workers and leaders to give a befitting reply to the likes of Mr Singh, ''who have launched a misinformation campaign against my government.'' Senior party leader and Lok Sabha MP from Kaisarganj Beni Prasad Verma and SP general secretary and UP minister Shivpal Singh Yadav alleged the former Prime Minister was nursing a personal as well as political enmity with Mr Yadav and his (V P Singh) agitation was directed tounseat the latter from power.

They said the farmers of Dadri had already been paid compensation when the 2,100 acre land for Anil Ambani's Dadri power plant was acquired. ''All hue and cry raised by Mr Singh is at the behest of Congress, which is peeved at the development of UP,'' Mr Verma said.

He wondered how a leader like Ms Sonia Gandhi was extending ''indirect support'' to Mr Singh, who was known to have betrayed and maligned her husband late Rajiv Gandhi on the Bofors issue.

Mr Shivpal Singh Yadav, also UP energy minister, admitted that there was some delay in commencement of work at the Rs 10,000 crore Dadri project, but it was due to the split between the Ambani brothers.

Mr Verma and Mr Yadav also discounted reports about the Ajit Singh-led Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) ''singing the anti-SP tune.''

UNI

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