SP, allies mount pressure against President's Rule in UP

Lucknow, Feb 18 (UNI) The ruling Samajwadi Party and its allies today mounted pressure on the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government at the Centre against imposition of President's rule in Uttar Pradesh.

While on one hand the SP requested the President himself not to buckle under pressure from the Union government in signing the proclamation on imposing Article 356 in the state, the CPI (M) said it was against such a decision.

National Democratic Alliance (NDA) convener George Fernandes said here today that his Samata Party would ''fight tooth and nail'' against any such move. He said the fate of the government should be decided on the floor of the House and not Raj Bhawan.

In Mahoba, Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav asserted that the Supreme Court had only disqualified 13 Loktantrik Bahujan Dal (LBD) MLAs who had joined the Samajwadi Party. ''The apex court had not termed the state government illegal,'' he added.

Addressing a public meeting in Mahoba, he said any move by the Centre to impose President's rule in the state would only backfire.

He also dared the UPA to invoke Article 356.

Senior SP leader and former Union minister Beni Prasad Verma said here that the President should not sign on the recommendation of the Union Cabinet for taking action under Article 356 in the state.

''Through the media, we request the President not to sign the recommendation... during a debate on Article 356, the Constitution makers had maintained that President's Rule in any state should be imposed in the rarest of rare cases,'' he said.

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