UPCC chief opposes Left demand for floor test

New Delhi, Feb 17 (UNI) Firmly rejecting the Left stand that the Mulayam Singh Yadav Government in Uttar Pradesh should be given a chance to test its strength on the floor of the House, UPCC chief Salman Khurshid today demanded immediate dismissal of the government, saying floor test applied to a ''legitimately'' formed state government.

''The Supreme Court judgement in the S R Bommai case could not be applied to this situation as it presupposed that the government should be legally constituted. It does not apply to an unconstitutional entity like the one led by the Samajwadi Party in the state,'' he told a news conference here.

After the disqualification of the 13 BSP MLAs by the Supreme Court, the rest of the 24 MLAs who had defected from the party in 2003 to give support to the Mulayam Government also stand disqualified, as the apex court had not remanded their case to the Speaker to be decided, he said.

''And this disqualification comes into effect from August 27 two days before the defecting MLAs extended support to Mr Yadav's government, which makes it an illegal entity,'' he pointed out.

Mr Yadav should resign himself, but if he does not do so, he should be sacked, he added.' He said he had given his views to the Governor and to the party, and his job ended there.

''We are of the view that the Mulayam Singh government had lost all legitimacy to exist. But it is for the Centre to take a final view and action in the matter,''he added.

When asked why the Centre was taking so much time to act, he said it must be consulting legal experts, and Central Party leadership was talking to the allies over the issue.

''Let us give them sometime. The Governor's report must have reached here today. They will decide the course of action taking various factors into account,'' Mr Khurshid said.

Replying to a question, Mr Khurshid said when his party had extended support to the Samajwadi Party led government did to bolster the efforts to form an alternative secular government. But it never wanted that Mr Yadav should muster majority by engineering defections, he asserted.

UNI