New Delhi, Jun 15: In positive signals for the UPA, the Samajwadi Party today said it will not support any NDA Presidential candidate and did not want mid-term elections.
Senior SP leaders Ram Gopal Yadav and Mohan Singh, speaking separately, gave ample indications that their party has second thoughts on teaming up with Trinamool Congress to turn the Presidential race into a troublesome affair for UPA.
Singh said his party was with UPA as it was “led by secular forces”. “It is our duty to tell Mamata Banerjee that the country is in great crisis and any move to destabilise the government is not fair”.
“At this stage, when the country is facing a serious financial crisis, making any attempt to destabilise the government and creating political instability will be hurtful to the nation,” Singh, who is SP Vice President, told PTI.
Singh said the SP will never support NDA's candidate in the Presidential poll. “How could we support NDA led by BJP and communal forces...How can NDA be a secular force as long as Narendra Modi is there?”
Speaking separately to reporters, Ram Gopal Yadav sang a similar tune.
“Neither will we join the government (at the Centre) nor do we favour mid-term polls. We never want mid-term polls as people face unwanted financial pressure,” the SP General Secretary said.
Cracks have developed between the two parties and this was also evident in Agra where SP Chief Mulayam Singh Yadav appeared to leave vague the issue of backing the candidature of APJ Abdul Kalam, proposed jointly by him and Banerjee.
Shortly after Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee claimed in Delhi that both her party and SP were sticking to the candidature of Kalam, Yadav arrived in Agra for a private event and avoided any comments on it.
“I have not come here to do politics. We have some family links and I have come to attend (a condolence meeting),” he told reporters who sought his comments on Mamata's remarks in Delhi.
Mohan Singh also claimed that three candidates announced by Trinamool Congress chief for the Presidential poll are unlikely to contest as Somnath Chatterjee has expressed surprise over the development and Kalam wants to be a consensus candidate.
Congress has made it clear that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, also proposed by the TMC-SP combine, will remain in the present post till the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.
He said SP will decide on the issue of support in the Presidential election after UPA and NDA announce their candidates.
