Our utility for UPA ended with trust-vote: Amar Singh

The Samajwadi Party accused its new found ally Congress of virtually adopting a 'use and throw' policy.

In an indication of souring of its relations with the Congress, the Samajwadi Party accused its new found ally of virtually adopting a 8220;use and throw8221; policy and said their future relations would depend on 8220;post poll dynamics8221;.

8220;Our utility for Congress had ended on July 22 itself when it won the trust vote. It follows a need-based relationship where only numbers matter,8221; SP general secretary Amar Singh said in New Delhi.

He added that the future of the political tie-up would entirely 8220;depend on post polls dynamics, with numbers playing a major role8221;.

Singh, however, said that despite the Congress failing to fulfil the SP8217;s 8220;reasonable demands on political and economic issues8221;, the party would continue to support it from outside, as 8220;I see some ray of hope in Soniaji and Rahul8221;.

8220;While UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Amethi MP Rahul Gandhi give us due respect, it seems that people under them are not under their control,8221; the SP leader claimed.

Singh lamented that some of the Congress leaders have termed him as 8220;mental case8221; and 8220;blackmailer8221;. 8220;We have the numbers and they will come to us again after the Lok Sabha elections,8221; Singh said.

He said the seat-sharing talks with Congress would now be restricted to Uttar Pradesh only. 8220;Now we will not ask for seats in Madhya Pradesh. On one hand they break our MLAs and on the other we discuss seat-sharing,8221; he said.

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He claimed that while SP was a strong force in UP, Congress was asking for 31 seats. 8220;They want us to accommodate them in UP, but they are not accommodating us in MP,8221; he said.

On his party8217;s demand for a judicial probe into the Jamia Nagar encounter, an issue which is growing as a contentious one between the two parties, Amar Singh said, 8220;we have hopes from Soniaji.8221;

The SP and Congress came together in July when the former helped the UPA government sail through the crucial trust vote in the Lok Sabha after the Left withdrew support over the Indo-US nuclear deal.

While forming a Coordination Committee with Congress, the SP refused an offer to join the Cabinet. But after two meetings of the Coordination Committee, SP leader Amar Singh has been complaining that the Congress-led UPA government 8220;is not listening to it on major political and economic issues.8221;

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He also complained that even on economic issues like windfall tax and SEZs, the government has failed to heed to SP8217;s views.

SP has also been critical about the Centre8217;s handling of the situation in Maharashtra where there has been an escalation in violent attacks on north Indians.

Singh said on Wednesday that despite Prime Minister Manmohan Singh8217;s intervention, the Congress-led government in Maharashtra has not been able to prevent such incidents.

A young Uttar Pradesh migrant labourer had died after being severely beaten in a local train by fellow commuters following a squabble. In another incident a youth from Patna was gunned down by the police in a Mumbai bus on Monday.