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SP to oppose BJP's plan to create smaller states

Samajwadi Party president Mulayam Singh Yadav today said his party was opposed to the creation of smaller states as proposed by the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Talking to newspersons in Lucknow, he said the creation of small states clearly suited ''the evil designs'' of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, which wanted to create its pockets of influence, and the BJP was party to this game. The move would be opposed tooth and nail, he declared.

Yadav said his party was solidly behind the Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Laloo Prasad Yadav, who has opposed the formation of Vananchal. ''We would always support the creation of Jharkhand comprising parts of Bihar, Orissa and West Bengal, but Vananchal would be opposed at any cost," he said.

Regarding Uttaranchal, he said the state assembly, during his tenure as chief minister, had already passed the resolution. However, his party was against the inclusion of Udham Singh Nagar and Hardwar in the proposed state, and would launch a peaceful agitation in and outside the state assembly if any such decision was implemented.

He said the resolutions on creation of the hill state had not contained the names of these two places passed during his tenure as well as during the BJP rule.

Yadav said, ''My party would raise the issue during the two-day special session of the assembly to be convened on September 18 for the passage of the Uttaranchal bill''.

He pointed out that Udham Singh Nagar was made a district by his party in 1994 but it was never in favour of including it in the proposed hill state.

Yadav, as chairman of the Rashtriya Loktantrik Morcha, said in reply to a question that the Morcha had not been approached by any other party for electoral alliance in the states of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Delhi where assembly elections are scheduled to be held in November.

He reiterated his stand to support the Congress if it initiated any move to topple the BJP government at the Centre. He, however, said the Samajwadi Party and the Morcha were potent political forces, and his appeal should not be taken as an act of desperation. ''We just want to get rid of the BJP government'', he added.

The Samajwadi Party, the RJD and the Left parties have a combined strength of more than 100 seats in the Lok Sabha, and no power in the country could ignore this force, he added.

UNI

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