The Hindu : Laloo welcomes Sonia stand on coalition

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Nov 12, 2002

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National

Laloo welcomes Sonia stand on coalition

By K.Balchand

PATNA NOV.11. The RJD President, Laloo Prasad Yadav, today welcomed the announcement of the Congress president, Sonia Gandhi's, announcement that her party was willing to be part of a coalition government at the Centre.

The idea was to defeat the BJP and throw the communal forces out. The same held true in Gujarat and since the Congress was the strongest force there all the other secular-democratic forces should join hands with it and evict the Modi Government, he said.

Condemning the alleged manhandling of the Samajwadi Party leader, Amar Singh, in Lucknow today, he said the best way out of the present political imbroglio in Uttar Pradesh was a trial of strength on the floor of the Assembly.

Mr. Yadav alleged that the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, Mayawati, had resorted to "repressive and anti-democratic" measures to put down the Opposition at the behest of the BJP. The U.P. Governor, Vishnu Kant Shastri, would be better advised to summon an emergency session of the Assembly and direct the Chief Minister to prove her strength on the floor of the House.

The RJD chief said that it would only be proper that the Samajwadi Party first prepared the ground for seeking the Congress support. But he was confident that the Congress would vote against the BJP-Mayawati combine.

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