RLD withdraws support from Mulayam govt

Lucknow, Jan 18 (UNI) Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD), a major ally of the Mulayam Singh Yadav-led Uttar Pradesh government, today withdrew support from the three-year old government in the state.

''We have withdrawn the support as we no more have faith in the government,'' RLD leader and former state Tourism minister Kokab Hamid told reporters after meeting governor T V Rajeswar at Raj Bhawan.

While the formal letter by the RLD gave no reason for its decision, the issue of cane prices did find a mention. ''Despite three letters Party Chief by Ajit Singh, the Chief Minister gave no cognizance to our demand to hike sugarcane prices,'' Mr Hamid claimed.

He said in case the BJP brought a no confidence motion against the government, the RLD will not support the ruling dispensation.

''We will decide the medium by which we can prove that the government has lost confidence of the house,'' he added. He said even the motion of thanks to the Governor's address could be a medium to prove that the Mulayam Singh government was in a minority in the house.

The Ajit Singh-led party was providing ''inside'' support to the Samajwadi Party government and had four ministers from its quota.

Earlier, three of the RLD ministers had been withdrawn from the government over cane prices while the fourth had already resigned in the wake of Dr Kavita Rani murder case.

RLD has 15 members in the UP assmebly.

The RLD's intentions to withdraw from the ruling dispensation were clear from the day its ministers resigned from the government.

The issue was ''poor hike'' in the cane prices announced by the Chief Minister in the recently-concluded Monsoon session of the Assembly.

While RLD was demanding a price of Rs 200 per qunital, the government hiked the prices upto Rs 122 per qunital only.

The RLD had maintained a silence in the house but its chief Ajit Singh called a press conference a few days later to announce the resignation of his ministers from the government.

The RLD's announcement came hours after the Congress submitted a letter to the Governor about the withdrawl of outside support.

The Mulayam government decided to reconvene the recently-concluded Monsoon session after the RLD withdrew its three ministers from the ruling dispensation, in a bid to prove it still enjoyed the confidence of the House.

While on January 3, the cabinet had requested the Governor to prorogue the session, on January 9, it requested the Governor to cancel its request to prorogue the session, so that Monsoon session could be reconvened.

But, when the governor signed the prorogation order, the state government and Raj Bhawan came close to a collision course.

However, the state government relented and requested the Governor to summon a fresh session. The Chief Minister met the governor in this regard, paving the way for the Winter session, also considered as the farewell session as elections to the assembly are due shortly, though the Election Commission has so far not announced the dates.

UNI