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Political compulsions drove us to Congress, but it is not to be trusted, says Amar Singh

''We never wanted to have an alliance with the Congress in any election. However, political compulsions forced us to do so,'' Amar Singh, member of Parliament and general secretary of the Samajwadi Party, said in Bombay today.

Addressing a press conference at Haj House in South Bombay, Amar Singh said his party's one-point programme is to pull down the Shiv Sena-Bharatiya Janata Party government in Maharashtra. ''Therefore we had an alliance with the Congress for the biennial Rajya Sabha and bye-elections held recently. We did not want the Sena-BJP to take advantage of the infighting among us,'' he said.

''Otherwise the Congress is not a party to be trusted," he said, adding that the Samajwadi Party was humiliated badly by the Congress during the bye-election last time. However, compared to the BJP, the "Congress is a lesser evil'', he pointed out.

Terming the BJP as the most communal and evil party, he said, ''We have selected the lesser evil, the Congress. However, we have not given any character certificate to the Congress.''

The Congress won one seat from Maharashtra in the recently held Rajya Sabha election because the Samajwadi Party supported it. A lot of cross-voting took place within the Congress. "This shows that even their MLAs do not trust their party," Singh said. ''Our party is not depending upon the Congress anyway'', he added.

UNI

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