MP-BSP-MLAS

All is well, we will remain with Mayawati: BSP MLAs in MP
    (Eds: Recasting overnight story)
    Bhopal, Sep 19 (PTI) Days after all six legislators of
the BSP joined the ruling Congress in Rajasthan, the Mayawati-
led party's two MLAs in Madhya Pradesh have asserted that they
will remain loyal to their party chief and not switch sides.
    The two Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) MLAs - Sanjeev Singh
Kushwaha and Rambai Singh - are supporting the Congress
government in Madhya Pradesh, where the ruling party has a
wafer-thin majority in the 230-member Assembly.
    On Monday, the BSP had a major setback when all its
six MLAs in Rajasthan wrote to Assembly Speaker C P Joshi
to merge the legislative party with the Congress.
    However, the BSP MLAs in MP on Wednesday assured they
were not going to quit the party.
    Kushwaha and Singh told PTI that they are with their
party leader Mayawati and will remain with her in future too.
    "All is well here (in Madhya Pradesh). There is no
problem," Kushwaha said.
    Asked whether he may also change loyalty like the BSP
MLAs in Rajasthan, Kushwaha said if he wants to join the
Congress, he will do it with pomp and show.
    "There is nothing like that now. Nor I am going to
join (the Congress) in future," he asserted.
    On whether any directive has come to them from the
party chief after the Rajasthan episode, Kushwaha said,
"Mayawatiji hasn't told us anything. I am with the party."
    Asked if he and Singh had sought Cabinet berth in the
past in MP, Kushwaha replied in the negative.
    "I am with Mayawatiji and will remain with her. We are
powerful in MP because of Mayawatiji. I won the election on
the BSP ticket and will remain loyal to it," Singh said.
    Following the state polls last year, the Congress,
which has 114MLAs inthe 230-member Assembly, is two short of
the simple majority mark of 116.
    It has the support of two MLAs of the BSP, one of the
Samajwadi Party and four Independents.
    The BJP won 109 seats and one of its MLAs later
resigned after getting elected to the Lok Sabha.
    In July, two BJP MLAs backed the Congress-led state
government during voting on a bill in the Assembly. PTI LAL
MAS RSY
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(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from a PTI feed.)