New Delhi/ Lucknow, June 12: The politics in Uttar Pradesh hotted up once again today with chief minister Mayawati claiming she commanded the support of some two dozen Samajwadi Party MLAs. Meanwhile, the opposition maintained that she had lost majority and dared her to convene the assembly to prove her support. "Nearly two dozen SP MLAs are in touch with me. I do not want to take their names. But they told me that they are very unhappy and assured me `whenever you need us, we will support you`," she told reporters at the Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi on her arrival after a 15-day foreign jaunt.


Mayawati said that Mulayam Singh Yadav had got information about these MLAs who are ready to support her. "Therefore to stop his party from breaking and prevent his MLAs from switching allegiance, he makes statements that our government is about to fall," she said.
Rejecting her claim UP SP president Ram Saran Das and Congress spokesman Akhilesh Singh said, "Let her convene the house to prove her majority if she was so confident of having the support of the opposition MLAs".


"Her statement however has only confirmed our fears that she would now be channelising her energies on engineering defections in the opposition in order to remain in power," Singh said.

Das claimed Mayawati`s statement was aimed at diverting attention from the tenuous unity in the BSP-BJP coalition where the MLAs were now mentally prepared to switch sides in order to secure their future.
Contrary to what she claims as many as 20 to 22 BSP MLAs are in touch with the Samajwadi Party and are only biding their time, Das claimed.

Meanwhile, RLD sources here said that party president Ajit Singh was in the process of holding consultations with several MLAs of the ruling party in New Delhi and a clear picture was likely to emerge by June 15.

The ruling party, however, claimed that negotiations were on with at least five RLD MLAs who might switch sides and be inducted into the ministry as soon as the modalities could be worked out after the arrival of the Chief Minister in Lucknow tomorrow.

Bureau Report