'Delhi shootout probe demand is party's official view'

LUCKNOW: Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav on Tuesday said Amar Singh's demand for a judicial probe into the Sep 19 shootout in New Delhi, in which two terror suspects and a police inspector, were killed was an official stand of the party.

Yadav blamed the media for misinterpreting  party general secretary Amar Singh's statement on the death of the police inspector.

"Whatever he (Singh) demanded was the voice of the Samajwadi Party, not his individual statement, and he never questioned the bravery of the slain cop," Yadav said at a press conference in the state capital.

Yadav, however, avoided questions related to his party's proposition on sharing seats  with the Congress for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

"Currently, the preparation of voter list is in progress and it will take another three to four months. It is too early to reach any settlement (with the Congress)," he said.

Defending his brother, Shivpal Singh Yadav's statement that the Samajwadi Party was prepared to contest all seats in Uttar Pradesh, Yadav said: "We were preparing for the elections much before the trust vote on the nuclear deal."

The Samajwadi Party chief blamed the Mayawati government for "involvement in corrupt and anti-social activities".

"Be it increase in value-added taxes, acquiring agricultural lands for the not-so-useful Ganga Expressway project or implicating Samajwadi Party workers under false cases, her (Mayawati's) only concern is to waste the hard-earned public money for her personal ventures," Yadav alleged.

The Samajwadi Party will Oct 21 launch a state-wide agitation against the government, he said.

"The government has failed on the law and order front and incidents of murder, rape and other heinous crimes are on a record high in the state," he alleged.