Mulayam weighs options | Prez rule?

New Delhi: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav is examining his options as demands for his ouster grow louder and louder.

Sources tell CNN-IBN that Governor T V Rajeshwar has sent a two-page report to the Centre in which he has recommended President’s rule in the state. Mulayam has called for an emergency meeting of his party on February 21 in Lucknow and has dared the Centre to dismiss his government.

Mulayam, who was campaigning for the Samajwadi Party in Uttarakhand, said that his government had absolute majority in the Assembly and there was no question of him resigning. ''If the Centre wants they can dismiss me,'' he said.

Major Opposition parties in UP, the Congress, BJP, BSP and the RJD, want his government dismissed after the Supreme Court on Thursday disqualified 13 rebel BSP MLAs supporting his ministry.

Senior SP leader and Rajya Sabha MP Virendra Bhatia on Saturday said the party will move court if the government is dismissed.

"All options, including the legal one, will be open for us in case the Centre dismisses the democratically-elected government," said Bhatia.

State advocate general S M A Kwazmi also said the government would take recourse to all constitutional measures in the event of its dismissal.Patil meets Sonia, PM

Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil on Saturday evening met Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to discuss the political situation in UP.

The Congress is keen on dismissing the Mulayam government but doesn’t have the support of the CPI-M, a key UPA ally.

Criticising the CPI-M’s opposition, UP Congress Committee chief Salman Khurshid firmly rejected its statement that Mulayam should be given a chance to prove his majority. ''A floor test applied to a legitimately-formed government,'' Khurshid was quoted by UNI as saying.

''The Supreme Court judgement in the R S Bommai case could not be applied to this situation as it presupposed that the government should be legally constituted. It does not apply to an unconstitutional entity like the one led by the Samajwadi Party in the state,'' he said.

The BJP said the situation in UP is ''a fit case for dismissal of the government and imposition of President's Rule.''

''It seems that Mr Yadav wants to make a world record of sorts, by engineering defections,'' said party Vice-President Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi.

The BSP also demanded the government’s dismissal in the state. ''If the governor fears, as per the reports, that horse trading might take place, he should not hesitate sacking the Samajwadi Party-led government in the state,'' Party general secretary Satish Misra told UNI.

RJD chief and Railway Minister Lalu Prasad said Mulayam “has forfeited all rights to continue in office. An extraordinary situation has arisen following the apex court's verdict and subversion of the Constitution has been proven with the judgement.''