SP rues flying solo

Party general secretary Amar Singh congratulated the UPA in Delhi but added that had they contested the elections together,the BSP would have been wiped out. “The ruling party has become weak,but is still surviving,” he said.

Asked whether SP will respond to the Prime Minister’s call to all secular parties to join the UPA,he said: “There has been no formal request from the PM. I will not reply to such hypothetical questions. If Congress makes the first move,we will decide on it.”

The SP’s situation at the Centre is similar to 2004,when the Congress did not ask for its help and the party extended it unilaterally. Given the seats with which it has returned,the UPA again doesn’t need the SP numbers to reach the magic figure of 273. Singh insisted that the ‘Fourth Front’ they had forged before the polls would survive,despite the poor showing by the RJD and the LJP. “We were together earlier and I will not leave them,” he said. He also described the electoral verdict as a “vindication” of his party’s decision to support the UPA on the nuclear deal.

But grumblings have begun in the SP over the party’s rigidity in not giving more seats to the Congress,which could have kept the alliance alive. “The Congress just wanted about two dozen seats and friendly fights on five seats like Rampur,Farrukhabad,Pratapgarh,Gonda and Fatehpur Sikri,but our party leaders refused and even sought to humiliate the Congress. Now we must be ready to face the consequences,” said a SP leader.

The party leaders have begun questioning the logic of going without an ally at a time when they were facing a multi-cornered contest and serious party infighting because of Azam Khan. While the SP was also on the defensive over its ties with Kalyan,the party’s estimate is that the former BJP leader actually helped it consolidate its OBC support base in 28 constituencies in Bundelkhand,western and central Uttar Pradesh.

However,it did cost the party some Muslim vote,which may have gone to the Congress.