The Congress joined the BJP and BSP's refrain that the Mulayam Singh Yadav government should be dismissed in the wake of the Supreme Court verdict upholding the disqualification of 13 BSP legislators.
While the state Congress leaders called on Governor T V Rajeshwar in Lucknow to demand dismissal, Union Minister Kapil Sibal said that the Mulayam government should not be given any lease to stay in power and the Governor or the Centre should act.
"The Mulayam government is based on constitutional illegality…Any lease of life would mean perpetuating anarchy and unconstitutionality," he said, adding that it was time to end the "constitutional fraud."
The manner in which Mulayam cobbled a majority was a "classic example" of the misuse of the Tenth schedule of the Constitution, Sibal said. Clarifying that he was commenting on the SC's decision as a lawyer, he added that the verdict on disqualification of 13 BSP MLAs should apply to 24 other legislators who had defected and to the 10 BSP MLAs who support the UP government.
The AICC has so far only called for Mulayam's resignation on "political, moral and ethical grounds." Ashok Gehlot, AICC general secretary in charge of UP, reiterated this on Thursday with his comment that the party was studying the SC judgement. "We are looking into various interpretations of the judgement," he said, refusing to go into the issue of the numerical strength of the Mulayam government. But the CM, he said, should resign in view of the deficit of credulity and apprehensions that free and fair polls were not possible under his dispensation.
{{/usCountry}}The AICC has so far only called for Mulayam's resignation on "political, moral and ethical grounds." Ashok Gehlot, AICC general secretary in charge of UP, reiterated this on Thursday with his comment that the party was studying the SC judgement. "We are looking into various interpretations of the judgement," he said, refusing to go into the issue of the numerical strength of the Mulayam government. But the CM, he said, should resign in view of the deficit of credulity and apprehensions that free and fair polls were not possible under his dispensation.
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