Mulayam to seek trust vote amidst Opposition boycott

Lucknow, Feb 25 (UNI) Creating a record of sorts in Indian legislative history, Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav is all set to seek a trust vote in the Assembly tomorrow amid a threat of boycott by the opposition parties and en masse resignation of the BSP MLAs.

It will be for the first time that a majority government will seek confidence vote on simultaneous sittings of the House. The Samajwadi Party government had gone for the trust vote on January 25 on the last sitting day of the present session and it will do so again tomorrow.

The confidence vote of the government might be the last major engagement of the Assembly before the seven-phase state polls slated between April and May.

Though there is no demand for the confidence vote, the government is set to do it to prove its majority after the Supreme court verdict disqualifying 13 MLAs of the BSP's splinter group.

The government is also slated to bring a finance bill in the House tomorrow to hike the pension of ex-legislators.

Although BSP's action has taken out the fizz to some extent of the proposed Samajwadi Party (SP) government trust vote and it is likely that BJP, Congress and RLD might follow suit before the Assembly sitting, the ruling party has decided to go ahead with the motion at any cost.

BJP, the main opposition party has hinted at opposing the government in the House claiming that running away from the issue would only help the government to fulfill its illegal desire.

SP and BJP have convened their legislature party meetings today to discuss the issue, while Congress MLAs will sit tomorrow morning.

Congress and Jan Morcha led by former prime minister V P Singh have announced to 'gherao' the Assembly tomorrow to protest the ''illegal continuation'' of the SP government.

Jan Morcha leader and cinestar Raj Babbar said they will not allow the SP MLAs to enter the Assembly premises.

SP leader and state revenue minister Ambika Choudhury claimed the Opposition was afraid to face the Assembly. ''The BSP move to resign en masse will not at all affect the sitting of the House.'' The Minister said it should be queried if Mayawati had merely mentioned about her party MLAs' resignation or the legislators were actually serious about it.

On the other hand, the main opposition termed the resignation of BSP MLAs as a 'walkover' to the Mulayam government.

''There is no way the Mulayam government could have proved its majority on the Floor of the House on February 26, but after the resignation of 67 BSP members, now the ball is in the government's court,'' BJP legislature party leader Lalji Tandon said.

''BSP move is detrimental to the opposition's unity against SP in the assembly, thus giving the latter a 'walkover' on the confidence vote.'' MORE UNI