Mulayam poaches on Maya’s men, one by one, he gets three so far

Says a source, ‘‘This is just the beginning of resignations from the BSP. The target is to get another 10 BSP MLAs to resign.’’ The source adds that rest of the resignations are expected just before the elections. BSP spokesperson Sudhir Goel accuses Yadav of being ‘‘desperate and running scared.’’

Says Goel, ‘‘Mulayam Yadav obviously does not enjoy the support of his present MLAs which is why he is using threats, allurements and terror to get BSP MLAs to resign. It is only a matter of days before his government collapses, therefore, he is using every trick to survive.’’

When contacted, Samajwadi Party general secretary Amar Singh refused to comment on the developments.

Though the SP-led government is comfortably placed with 216 MLAs on its side in the 402-member House (SP-192; Ajit Singh’s RLD-14; CPI-2; CPI(ML)-1; Independents-7 plus Congress support from the outside with 16 MLAs), Yadav has been rocked by a series of upsets.

First, the chief architect of Yadav’s four-party coalition government, which came to power four months ago, Kalyan Singh, left him last week with four MLAs. Two, the BJP still holds the key to the survival of Mulayam Yadav’s government, handed over to the party by Mulayam Singh himself.

By retaining Speaker Kesrinath Tripathi, Yadav has unwittingly given the party vetoing power. For, if the Speaker derecognises the 40 BSP MLAs who switched over to the SP on the eve of the formation of his government, they are automatically disqualified and the government will stand on a shaky ground. Three, there is increasing pressure by the BSP on the Congress, which supports the government from the outside, to pull out if the latter wants an alliance in the coming Lok Sabha election.