Lucknow, July 4 (IANS) Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati Friday called the new found friendship between the Samajwadi Party and the Congress over the India-US nuclear deal “an opportunistic alliance”. She told reporters here that Samajwadi Party leader and former chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav was acting to protect his self-interest by shoring up the government of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh while saying publicly that he was committed to national interest.

“The understanding between the two parties is for personal vested interests, devoid of any ideological commitment,” she said.

Mayawati said she had heard from sources that the Samajwadi Party would not immediately join the Congress-led government but back it from the outside to make up for the Left withdrawal of support.

She added that the nuclear deal had run into controversy because the central government did not take the people of the country into confidence.