Miffed SP quits Janata Parivar

Allies offer Mulayam only five seats

The anti-BJP alliance in Bihar suffered a jolt on Thursday after the Samajwadi Party (SP) decided to pull out of it.

The ruling party of Uttar Pradesh, which felt ‘humiliated’ by the offer of just five seats to contest in the ensuing Assembly election, decided to contest the polls either alone or in alliance with some other parties. SP general secretary Ram Gopal Yadav announced the decision after a meeting of its parliamentary board chaired by party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav.

The latter’s absence at the Janata Parivar’s Swabhimaan rally in Patna on August 30, which was also attended by Congress president Sonia Gandhi, hinted at the SP’s unhappiness over seat-sharing. The party was represented there by Shivpal Singh Yadav.

Yadav said the bigger alliance partners did not follow the coalition dharma by not consulting them over seat-sharing. “We felt humiliated,” he said, adding they would either contest the Bihar polls alone or might ally with some other parties.

Yadav, who expressed confidence over the SP winning a good number of seats in the Assembly polls, said he had objected to the idea of the merger of the constituent parties of the Janata Parivar earlier.  “Had this happened after the merger, we would have been in a hopeless situation...it was akin to signing one’s own death warrant,” he said. He said the SP would win more seats than the numbers  offered to them. The SP general secretary felt his party should not be blamed for the break-up, which might lead to a division of secular votes in the polls.