Lalu Yadav to withdraw support to UPA

New Delhi, Mar 10 (ANI): Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav is expected to hand over a letter to President Pratibha Patil on Wednesday withdrawing his party's support to the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Government on the issue of the Women Reservation Bill.

Addressing the media, Lalu Yadav said that despite making request by the Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Mulayam Singh Yadav and me to Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh on the issue, the government went ahead with voting on the bill, which seeks to provide 33 percent reservation to women in Lok Sabha and State Assemblies.

"I will hand over the letter to the President withdrawing support tomorrow," said Lalu Yadav on Tuesday.

However, Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Mulayam Singh Yadav remained non-committal on the issue and did not make it clear when he would handover the letter of withdrawing support to the President.

"I have already announced withdrawing support. We will let you know when we write the letter," he said.

History was created in the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday when it voted by an overwhelming majority a Bill to reserve one-third of seats in Lok Sabha and Assemblies for women after government pushed ahead with it, ignoring possible threats to its stability and after eviction of troublesome MPs opposed to it.

Fourteen years after the first attempt was made in the Lok Sabha and repeated failures subsequently, the Constitution amendment bill was adopted in the mandatory division with 186 members voting for it and one voting against.

In the 245-member House with an effective strength of 233, the bill required the backing of at least 155 members and the UPA had the clear support of 165 in the run up to the event.

The bill seeks to reserve for women 181 of the 543 seats in the Lok Sabha and 1,370 out of a total of 4,109 seats in the 28 State Assemblies. (ANI)