Mulayam rules out tie-up with Congress

Only a day after the Congress said it was still open to an electoral tie-up with secular parties, Samajwadi Party president Mulayam Singh Yadav firmly ruled out an alliance.

"Strong possibilities of a pre-poll alliance with the Congress had emerged a few days ago and I had even sent SP general secretary Amar Singh to meet party president Sonia Gandhi. But senior Congress leader Arjun Singh sabotaged the prospects by announcing at a rally that his party would withdraw support to my government before the elections," Yadav told reporters at Patna airport during a brief stopover before flying to hold election rallies at Rosera and Buxar.

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Countering Rashtriya Janata Dal president Laloo Prasad Yadav's description of him as vote katwa (one who divides the votes), Mulayam Singh Yadav said, "I don't know how the people of Bihar are tolerating this joker."

To another question about whether his not joining a secular alliance would benefit the Bharatiya Janata Party, the SP leader said, "Where do you think the battle against communalism is being fought? It is being fought not in Bihar or West Bengal, but Uttar Pradesh where my party relegated BJP to the third position in the last assembly elections."