Country facing Emergency-like situation: Ram Gopal Yadav

Samajwadi Party general secretary Ram Gopal Yadav Monday termed the situation in the country akin to the Emergency and blamed the "wrong policies" of the Congress for the worsening economic situation.

Talking to reporters on the sidelines of a function here, Yadav said the Samajwadi Party has no understanding with the Congress, nor will have one in the Lok Sabha polls.

Asked about the support the SP has lent to the Congress-led UPA I and UPA II, he contended this was largely done to prevent the communal forces from coming to power.

"Our support to Congress government is issue-based but we can say that policies of Congress can never be beneficial to the country," he said.

Adding that his party was prepared for the general elections whenever these are held, the SP leader said though the party has announced a majority of its candidates, the leadership was scrutinizing the candidates and if need be, candidates in some select seats may be changed.

"We are gathering information from the ground on how our candidates are performing so far. If they are not living up to the party standards, we will change them," Yadav said.

Referring to the economic crisis as "grave", he said it was worrying that the Indian rupee was sliding to a new low every day, the imports increasing and exports shrinking.

He also slammed the UPA for bringing the Food Security Bill and the Land Acquisition Bill in parliament at the fag end of its tenure.

"The Congress is doing all this with an eye on votes and they are simply not bothered about the poor," he said.

On whether the SP was still not going to field candidates against Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi and Congress president Sonia Gandhi in Amethi and Rae Bareilly, Yadav refused to give a direct answer and instead questioned the media on their "over interest" in these two constituencies.

Yadav is the SP's think tank in New Delhi and has pulled the Congress out of crisis many times, persuading his elder brother and party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav against being rigid on the party.