VP comes to Cong help, talks with Left for Mulayam's dismissal

New Delhi, Feb 17 (UNI) Former Prime Minister and Jan Morcha founder leader VP Singh today said he was in dialogue with Left leaders to persuade them to give up their opposition to the dismissal of the Mulayam Singh Yadav Government in Uttar Pradesh.

''The Jana Morcha was very clear that the SP-led government was illegitimately constituted and it has no right to exist any more,''Mr Singh said addressing a news confernce along with Morcha leader and film star Raj Babbar here tonight.

If the government was allowed to test its majority on the floor of the House on February 26, the Morcha would take its agitation to streets to save democracy, and it would gherao every defecting MLA, he said.

''We are talking to different leaders over the issue and pointing out to them that the use of Article 356 was justified in this case as it was the Supreme Court judgement that had rendered the Mulayam Government illegal,'' the former Prime Minister said.

He said though he was yet to speak to DMK leader M Karunanidhi, he hoped that would be able to establish a dialogue with him too over the issue.

Mr Singh said that if the SP government remained in power in Uttar Pradesh, no free and fair elections were possible.

If the Mulayam government is not dismissed, it would set up a bad precedent and ecourage the kind of horsetrading and mechanisations that were resorted to by the SP chief to form the government, he voiced.

The former Prime Minister said that he had never been in favour of the use of Article 356 against any state government, but the Mulayam Singh government was a fit case for dismissal after the Supreme Court judgement.

UNI