Even as the bitterness between the Congress and its arch enemy, UP Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav, grows by the day, the party seemed to delight on Thursday in launching fresh salvos against the Samajwadi Party chief. A day after it raked up Mulayam’s meetings with the RSS chief and with the Israeli ambassador, the Congress demanded today that he quit and own moral responsibility for the ‘‘total breakdown of constitutional machinery’’ in his state. The party also said that it would soon take the ‘‘right decision’’ on continuing support to Mulayam’s government in UP. ‘‘The party state unit and the central leadership are deliberating on the issue, and a decision will be taken soon enough,’’ spokesperson Jayanti Natarajan said. Citing a sting operation by a private news channel that showed a UP minister expressing his willingness to transport contraband in his official car, party spokesperson Jayanti Natarajan said it had ‘‘shocked and outraged the democratic conscience of the country’’. ‘‘This incident shows the total collapse of governance in the state, and Mulayam must own the responsibility for this,’’ she said. Asked if she would demand that the Union government dismiss the state government over the scandal, Natarajan said her appeal was to the UP CM to quit voluntarily. ‘‘The party has no view on dismissing the UP government. It is for the governor and the Union government to decide,’’ she said.
