New Delhi, March 8 (IANS) The Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) Monday said they had decided to withdraw support to the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government over differences on the Women's Reservation Bill.

'We have decided to pull out. We have withdrawn our support to the government,' RJD chief Lalu Prasad told reporters outside parliament after an uproar in the two houses over the bill that seeks to reserve 33 percent of legislative seats for women.

'We are not opposing the bill per se. We want, and the nation wants, that the reservation should be given to backward women who don't have resources. The real India should be empowered. Give them 50 percent reservation. We will not oppose that,' Lalu Prasad said in a joint news conference with SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav.

Both parties have been supporting the UPA government from outside.

However, the technical part of withdrawing their support remains till they submit a letter to President Pratibha Patil.

The RJD (4) and SP (22) together have 26 MPs in the Lok Sabha.