08 March,2010 02:41 PM IST | | Amit Kumar
The Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) on Monday said they had decided to withdraw support to the Congress-led UPA government over differences on the Women's Reservation Bill.
"We have decided to pull out. We have withdrawn our support to the government," RJD chief Lalu Prasad said outside parliament after an uproar in the two Houses over the bill that seeks to reserve 33 percent of legislative seats for women.
"We are not opposing the bill per se. We want, and the nation wants, that the reservation should be given to backward women who don't have resources. The real India should be empowered. Give them 50 percent reservation. We will not oppose that," Lalu Prasad said in a joint news conference with SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav.
Both parties have been supporting the UPA government from outside.
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Together the two parties have 26 MPs in the Lok Sabha with 22 members belonging to the Samajwadi Party and four from the RJD. However, Samajwadi Party has already expelled its Lok Sabha MP Jaya Prada from the party.
However, the technical part of withdrawing their support remains till they submit a letter to President Pratibha Patil.
UPA's strenght in the Lok Sabha after RJD and Samajawadi Party withdrew their support: Congress 208, Trinamool Congress 19, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam 18, Nationalist Congress Party nine, National Conference three, Indian Union Muslim League two, Kerala Congress (Mani) one, Viduthalai Chiruthaigal Katchi (ally of the DMK) one, Janata Dal (Secular) three, Bodoland People's Front one, Nagaland People's Front one, Sikkim Democratic Front one and Jharkhand Vikas Morcha one.
