File Photo: Samajwadi Party Supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav
Despite the efforts of former allies Lalu Prasad and Nitish Kumar to change his mind, Mulayam Singh Yadav's Samajwadi Party, which quit Bihar's anti-BJP alliance last week, has declared it would contest all 243 assembly seats in the coming elections.
On Monday, the party's Bihar unit chief Ramchander Singh Yadav said they were in talks with the "like-minded" Nationalist Congress Party and the Left to contest the elections jointly. "If the talks fail, the party will contest all the seats on its own," he said.
In the 2010 polls, the SP had contested 146 seats in Bihar and failed to win any. But its presence in what was called the "grand alliance" marked a coming together of the anti-BJP front, where Lalu Prasad's Rashtriya Janata Dal, Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal United and the Congress were seen as the key players.
The break-up of the front started after the seat sharing formula was announced, with the exit of Sharad Pawar's Nationalist Congress Party, which had been allotted three seats of the 243. On September 3, the SP stormed out, upset that the alliance had offered his party only five seats - three that the NCP was offered and two from the RJD quota.
Now, the SP is expected to play spoiler for the anti-BJP combine by splitting the Muslim and the Yadav vote. Its decision also appears to have nullified the efforts of Mr Prasad and Mr Kumar to persuade Mulayam Singh to rethink his exit.
Mr Prasad had even visited Delhi to speak to Mr Yadav, who also became his relation following the marriage between his daughter and the SP chief's grand nephew.
The NCP had welcomed the decision of Mulayam Singh, saying it was a response to the "monopolistic" and "unilateral" approach of the JDU, RJD and Congress. Its general secretary Tariq Anwar had said his party would welcome a tie-up with the SP.