Not joining the UPA Govt, says Mulayam Singh

Lucknow:  Mulayam Singh Yadav has said his support from the outside to the UPA government will continue, but says the Samajwadi Party is not joining the government. "We have not asked anyone and no one has asked us to," the Samajwadi Party chief said emphatically in Lucknow today.

Mr Yadav said his support continued to be based on keeping communal forces away from the Centre.
There has been much speculation that the 72-year-old, who has just installed his 38-year-old son Akhilesh Yadav as Chief Minister of UP after a spectacular electoral performance, might join the Union Cabinet as the Congress looks for new political alignments to bolster its very fragile coalition at the Centre.
The SP gives outside support to the UPA government and has bailed it many times during Parliament votes. It voted in support of the UPA today too in the Lok Sabha on the issue of the National Counter Terrorism Centre. The government won those votes.
The Congress is reportedly keen that the SP join the coalition formally  - Mulayam Singh Yadav has 22 MPs in the Lok Sabha, which would more than offset the 19 MPs that the troublesome Trinamool Congress threatens to withdraw regularly. 

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