Governor will speak to PM on Uttar Pradesh: Raj Babbar

Bollywood actor-turned-politician Raj Babbar claimed Monday that Uttar Pradesh Governor T.V. Rajeshwar was going to speak to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the opposition demand for dismissal of the Mulayam Singh Yadav government.

Speaking to mediapersons shortly after calling on the governor at the Raj Bhawan here Monday afternoon, the Jan Morcha leader said: "The governor assured me he would convey the opposition demand for clamping president's rule on the state to the prime minister, who in turn would convene a meeting of his cabinet to take a decision on the issue."

"While our leader Vishwanath Pratap Singh has already sought dismissal of the Mulayam government, I came here to call on the governor and make a written representation in this regard," Babbar told reporters outside Raj Bhawan.

Asked to comment on the continued opposition by the Left to any move to clamp president's rule in Uttar Pradesh, Babbar said: "We are also not in favour of use of Article 356 to dismiss any democratically elected government; but here the case is different."

He said: "In Mulayam's case, it is a question of upholding the spirit of the apex court's order that invalidates the very inception of his government."

Voicing opposition to Mulayam Singh's offer to prove his majority on the floor of the state assembly, Babbar said: "The question of allowing him to do so does not arise as it is an open secret that last time when he proved his majority in the assembly (Jan 24), he had engineered defections by at least 17 MLAs belonging to other parties."

"Giving him an opportunity for floor test would amount to extending him yet another chance to forge defections through horse-trading," he charged.

The Congress and several opposition parties are clamouring for the dismissal of the Uttar Pradesh government in the wake of the Supreme Court disqualifying 13 MLAs of the Bahujan Samaj Party for defecting to Mulayam Singh Yadav in August 2003 to help him form government.

Indo-Asian News Service