Prez polls: SP reviews promise to CPM

After having averted the imposition of President’s Rule in the state with the CPI(M)’s support, the Samajwadi Party (SP) has gone back on its promise of unconditional support to the CPI(M) candidate in the forthcoming presidential election.

SP General Secretary Amar Singh told mediapersons in New Delhi today that his party would support the CPI(M) candidate in the presidential election. He, however, remained non-committal about a situation where the CPI(M) candidate also had Congress support. He also said that his party would never support a Congress nominee who has the CPI(M)’s support. In case the Marxists’ candidate’s name was jointly proposed by the Left and the Congress, Singh said, “the party will consult other parties that had come together with Mulayam Singh to campaign for the SP during the ongoing UP Assembly elections.”

The SP General Secretary also criticised Union Minister for Science and Technology Kapil Sibal for accusing Mulayam Singh Yadav for unscrupulous allotment of plots in Noida. Singh said Sibal’s name had figured in such a list in Haryana.

Citing a 1997 Chandigarh High Court judgment, which had quashed a discretionary allotment of plots in Haryana where Sibal’s name figured, Singh said Sibal should resign. “Kapil Sibal had said that he would quit politics if he is proved guilty. It has been proved that he and his family were allotted plots by Haryana Chief Minister Bhajan Lal. He should quit politics now,” Singh said.