Regional parties prop state issues

• Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh Yadav and BSP leader Rashid Alvi raked up Uttar Pradesh issues. Alvi denied Mulayam’s claim that the UP government was trying to book him, his son Akhilesh Yadav and party leader Amar Singh under POTA.

He said these were rumours to malign the state government headed by the daughter of a Dalit. He referred to Mulayam’s declaration that he would not let the Women’s Reservation Bill pass and wondered if he could too be booked under POTA. There was a commotion when he tried to show a photograph of the communal riots which took place at Bijnore during Mulayam’s rule. When the SP leader got up to protest he was supported by former prime minister Chandrashekhar, who claimed: ‘‘The UP chief minister said from the public platform in my district that a BJP MLA should be arrested.’’ He said it was not fair to say that this could not be discussed because a Dalit’s daughter was doing it.

• Environment Minister T.R. Baalu (DMK) called for the release of MDMK general secretary Vaiko who has been languishing in jail after the Tamil Nadu government arrested him under POTA.

• TDP’s Yerran Naidu attacking the Congress and Jaipal Reddy said: ‘‘Jaipal Reddy toured whole country on Bofors. Where is he now?’’ He said regional parties had ‘‘come up due to the Congress misrule.’’ Referring to the Shimla resolution of the Congress he said: ‘‘If they want power, they want regional parties.’’ The no-confidence motion on a trivial issue and that too after more than four years of the Vajpayee Govt, he said.