Bhopal, Sept 17: The Congress on Wednesday dismissed as "meaningless and absurd" the Samajwadi Party's charge that the former was trying to engineer defection from its ranks.
It was the job of the Mulayam Singh Yadav-led party to hold together its flock, Congress General Secretary in-charge of Uttar Pradesh Digvijay Singh told reporters here.
If Samajwadi Party (SP) MLAs in Madhya Pradesh wanted to come over to the Congress, nothing could be done about it, the former chief minister of Madhya Pradesh said.
Singh is also part of the Congress team holding talks with the SP for seat adjustments in Uttar Pradesh, which has the largest number of Lok Sabha seats.
In any case no decision has yet been taken on the entry of these SP legislators into the Congress fold, he said.
Singh said in case the Congress refuses to admit these MLAs into its ranks, they may join either the Mayawati-led Bahujan Samaj Party or the ruling BJP.
The SP should realise that this would be a bigger threat than the one that would take place if the MLAs joined the Congress, he said.
"It would be better for all concerned if these MLAs stayed inside the house (their party)."
The SP, whose ties with Congress warmed up ahead of the July 22 trust vote, has eight MLAs in Madhya Pradesh, where Assembly polls are slated for the year-end.
Four of the legislators of SP - Arjun Palia, K K Singh, Vanshmani Prasad and Vikram Singh -- resigned from the party on September 6.
Bureau Report
