Amid speculation that Mulayam Singh Yadav and Mamata Banerjee wanted mid-term polls, Samajwadi Party on Friday said it does not favour such a situation but made it clear that it will not join the UPA government.
"Neither will we join the government (at the Centre) nor do we favour mid-term polls.
We never want mid-term polls as people face unwanted financial pressure. It is a stress on the state exchequer also," SP General Secretary Ram Gopal Yadav told reporters.
To a poser on the party's stand on Presidential election and candidature of Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee for the top post, he said only SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav is authorised to speak on the issue.
"We are not authorised to speak on it." His statement that SP does not favour mid-term polls comes amid talks that parleys between the Mulayam Singh Yadav-led party and Congress have gained momentum over the possibility of his supporting the ruling dispensation's candidate for the Presidential poll.
Sources in Samajwadi Party said that Yadav, his cousin Ram Gopal Yadav and another senior leader Naresh Aggarwal have held at least five rounds of discussion with Congress leaders.
Yadav, meanwhile, left for Agra on Friday morning with party sources maintaining that he could reach Lucknow in the evening.