SP general secretary Siddiqui quits, joins BSP

Font Size -

Agencies

Posted online: Saturday , July 19, 2008 at 06:07:06

New Delhi, July 19: Desertions in Samajwadi Party on Saturday sent a jolt through a nervous UPA which struggled hard to cobble up 271 in Tuesday's trust vote but the likelihood of cross voting kept the government as well as the Opposition on their toes.

The high profile SP general secretary and Rajya Sabha member Shahid Siddiqui, who came in support of the Indo-US nuclear deal ever since the UPA-SP tie up, quit the party and announced his decision to join rival BSP.

"For the last one month, I have been feeling uneasy over the nuclear deal. I am of the opinion that it is not in national interest. I have been opposing it for the last three years," he said with UP Chief Minister Mayawati by his side after a meeting with her.

Siddiqui, also a journalist, said that he was taking this position heeding to the call of his conscience and would oppose the deal to the hilt.

SP, which has a strength of 39 Lok Sabha MPs, is already down to 35 with three rebel MPs -- Munawar Hasan, Raj Narain Budholiya and Jai Prakash being joined by S P Baghel.

Though Siddiqui's resignation does not affect Samajwadi Party's numbers in Lok Sabha, it comes as a huge embarrassment to the party that is in the forefront in attempts to muster numbers for the UPA government in the trust vote on Tuesday.

Putting up a brave front, Congress ruled out Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's resignation ahead of the trust vote, claiming he will sail through smoothly.

Post Comments

Name*		Email ID*
Subject*		Country*
Message*	Characters remaining

TERMS OF USE: The views represented here are not neccesarily endorsed by www.expressindia.com and its allied websites. All messages will be moderated and no message that has inflammatory, abusive, derogatory language or any language deemed unfit for publication by the editor will be displayed. Though it will be endeavoured that as many messages as possible be displayed, there will be time lag between the submission and publication of the messages. The website reserves the right to publish or reject any message.

I agree to the terms of use.

Comments - 3

Siddiqui by Rajiv Prasad Rudy on 20 Jul 2008

Siddiqui said in an interview with NDTV, that muslims are very badly treated in India and so he is joining BSP. You can imagine the type of fellows we have as politicians in India.

Reply | Forward | Report Abuse

SP general secretary Siddiqui quits by Indian on 20 Jul 2008

Hahahah. well done CONG(I), you almost destroyed SP. Nice politics, it will help BJP o improve in next elections.

Reply | Forward | Report Abuse

Hilarious.... by Curious on 20 Jul 2008

Did this man claim in Japan as part of the PM's entourage that he was in support of the deal ?

Reply | Forward | Report Abuse