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Opposition leaders on Wednesday called on President K R Narayanan and requested him to issue a directive to Uttar Pradesh Governor Vishnu Kant Shastri to invite Samajwadi Party, which has emerged as the single largest party in the state assembly, to form the government.
"We apprised President Narayanan about the political situation in the state, where there is fractured verdict... There have been instances when the single largest parties were invited to form government. Samajwadi Party has emerged as the single largest party and it should be invited to form the next government in Uttar Pradesh," Communist Party India -- Marxist leader H S Surjeet said after meeting the President.
The leaders cited the invitation extended by the then President Shankar Dayal Sharma to Atal Bihari Vajpayee to form the government after BJP emerged as the single largest party in 1996, Surjeet said.
Asked about the response of the President, Surjeet said he had assured them he would look into the demands.
The leaders tried to impress upon the President to have a popular government in the state keeping in view the situation arising out of VHP's announcement on the construction of Ram Temple at Ayodhya, he said.
Surjeet headed the nine-member delegation of the Front, which included the representative of the Rashtriya Janata Dal.
To a question how SP with only 143 members could prove its majority, Surjeet said that the opposition parties was of the view that the matter should be decided on the floor of the assembly.
Asked why Congress was not part of the delegation, he said it was the People Front's decision to seek the President's intervention and Congress was not consulted on the issue.
Surjeet declined to divulge as to what transpired between him and Congress president Sonia Gandhi during their meeting two days back.
"I am not going to say anything to you. What I told her and what she told me," he said.
Earlier Report: Opposition leaders to meet President on UP issue
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