NEW DELHI, May 9: Admitting a sense of “hurt” over the Left parties’ connivance with the Congress-led UPA Government on the women’s quota Bill, the Samajwadi Party said on Friday that Mulayam Singh Yadav and CPI(M) general secretary Prakash Karat talked to each other in this regard on Thursday.

“There was a deep sense of hurt within the party over the attitude of Left parties in the manner in which they got the Women’s Reservation Bill introduced in Parliament this week, keeping us out of the loop despite the fact that we collaborate with them on many issues,” said SP general secretary Amar Singh.

“During the meeting of the central parliamentary board yesterday, Mulayam talked to Karat on this issue. The matter was sorted out there and then. That helped cool the temperatures,” he added.

Singh emphasised that the SP and Left parties would maintain their relations on major issues in the long term. “There are more points of agreement between the SP and the Left than disagreements. This difference on the women’s Bill is not going to hurt our long-term relations with Left parties on larger political issues,” he said.

“I never made the unsavory comments against Left parties that have been attributed to me in the media,” added Singh, terming these as “baseless” and “fabricated”. He also denied reports that the SP has decided to send a team of party leaders to Nandigram to expose the situation under the Left there.

Reiterating the party’s opposition to the women’s Bill, he said: “Our party’s position on the Bill is very close to the hearts of our rank and file. We firmly stand by our position. Although the party is not opposed to women’s reservation, we will never accept the Bill in its current format.”

Singh added: “The women’s quota Bill was introduced through the back door, bypassing the select committee of Parliament. The Parliament’s select committee should not be used selectively, otherwise it will meet the fate of the AIIMS Bill that was struck down by the Supreme Court yesterday.”

Singh also reiterated the SP’s socialist position on Tibet, pointing out another point of difference with the Left. “Our party position on Tibet is based on the old socialist line where we urge that China should maintain distance from Tibet and must treat Tibetan people with grace and dignity. They should not use coercive force in Tibet,” he said.