Opposition 'helps' Mulayam secure confidence vote

Lucknow, Feb 26 (UNI) The Opposition helped the Mulayam Singh government secure the confidence vote in the House smoothly today.

The Opposition parties including the main Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the Congress have been crying hoarse for the lack of Opposition unity but their boycott from the voting of the confidence vote helped Mulayam Singh Yadav achieve his goal without any roadblocks.

The entire Opposition was of the view that the Mulayam Singh government, after the Supreme Court judgement disqualifying 13 legislators, was illegal but the House was left open for Mulayam singh to prove his majority in the House by a voice vote.

Politically, the confidence vote for the ruling dispensation was meaningless as the Assembly polls had already been announced but the resistance in the House would have been the logical action on the party of the Opposition.

Such has been the 'politeness' of the Opposition that the Congress and V P Singh-led Janmorcha even agreed to stage dharna at the Vidhan Bhawan (Council House) in protest against the government in a peaceful manner on one by one basis.

BSP members had resigned from the House membership on Saturday last while the Congress members resigned today. BJP and Ajit Singh-led Rashtriya Lok Dal boycotted the voting.

According to sources, the administration assured them not to use force against them and in turn they promised full support to the state machinery, a phenonmenon not seen often in a democratic set up where even the smallest of incidents provoked the political parties to launch vociferous agitation and such 'softness' of the Opposition coming at the time of elections had been even more baffling.

''It is ridiculous for my party leaders to have agreed upon this as the Congress has been the worst critic of the Mulayam Singh government and a noisy dharna would have been beneficial ahead of Assembly polls,'' a senior Congress functionary said on the condition of anonimity.

In fact, BJP is more often accused to have tacit understanding with SP but the conduct of BSP, the Congress and Janmorcha is far from being understood, political experts feel.

The BJP legislator party leader Lalji Tandon put the blame on BSP which according to him jeopardised the Oppsoition unity by inviting mass resignation of its legislators a couple of days before the Mulayam Singh government was to seek confidence vote.

Congress and BJP followed the suit but in a different manner.

However, the political observers felt the opposition was certainly short of ideas against the Mulayam-led Samajwadi Party government in the state.

Some call it 'hollowness' of the Oppsoition while others attribute it to the political acumen of Mulayam Singh Yadav who managed to keep Opposition divided all the time.

UNI