New Delhi, Oct 21: Buoyed by the dissidence in the BJP in Uttar Pradesh, Samajwadi Party today gave clear signals of fishing in troubled waters by asking the Congress to throw its weight behind secular parties to form an alternative to the "tottering" BSP-BJP coalition which will fall within 24 hours in such an eventuality.
"The moment the Congress decides, within 24 hours UP government will go. The onus lies on Congress......If Sonia Gandhi decides, things will happen. We pray that she decides soon", SP general secretary Amar Singh told reporters after a meeting of the party's central parliamentary board.
Claiming that the BSP-BJP coalition led by Mayawati is "almost dying", he denied suggestions that the SP was indulging in the toppling game and insisted that the coalition would fall under its own weight.
Singh said the fact that even the Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had to "run away" from Lucknow and cancel the press meet yesterday showed the gravity of the internal dissent in the state BJP.
He said the parliamentary board meet took stock of the situation in u p where the "opportunistic" coalition was "tottering" and "situation is ripe" for an alternative government. The SP is the single largest party in UP having 146 members.
Warning the Congress that history has shown that sometime neutrality was also a big crime, he said the ball was clearly in the Congress court as the need of the hour was for the secular forces to fight unitedly in UP, Gujarat as also for the Centre to defeat the communal forces. Bureau Report