Cong, SP join hands in LS to attack Maya

With Mayawati their bugbear, Congress and SP joined hands in the Lok Sabha on Thursday turning the table on BSP on the issue of security to political leaders in Uttar Pradesh.

With Mayawati their bugbear, Congress and SP joined hands in the Lok Sabha on Thursday turning the table on BSP on the issue of security to political leaders in Uttar Pradesh.

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To drive home its point, Congress cited arson at Rita Bahuguna Joshi’s house as the latest example.

As the issue of reported withdrawal of security cover to Mayawati was settled in the House, SP leader Mulayam Singh Yadav raised the issue of the way the BSP government in UP dealt with providing protection to leaders.

Amid storming of well by his party colleagues, Yadav insisted that Congress member Jagadambika Pal who has been raising questions over the way Mayawati government was providing security to leaders in the state should be heard.

Pal regretted that the Mayawati government decided the security of leaders not on the basis of threat perception and pointed out that several leaders and MPs like Ratna Singh and him have got protection only on the basis of court orders.

Despite strong protests by BSP members led by Darasingh Chauhan, Pal recalled that the house of UPCC chief Rita Bahuguna Joshi was recently burnt down and the main accused in the case has been rewarded with a Ministerial rank. SP member Rewati Raman Singh too attacked the UP Government.

At one point when Leader of the House Pranab Mukherjee failed to comprehend the issue being raised by the SP members in Hindi, Yadav walked up to him apparently to convey that the target was not the Centre.

“I am thankful to the Centre,” Yadav earlier said for its decision not to scale down security for him.