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.
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.
"Shall I Touch Your Feet?" Nitish Kumar Raps Officials Over Pending Land Survey 6 Injured In Shooting At Samajwadi Party Leader's Home In Varanasi Watch: Samajwadi Party MP Carried To Car By Staff On Waterlogged Road The 'Fake' CrowdStrike Worker Who Crippled Windows Users Worldwide On Sonu Sood's Post About Kanwar Yatra Order, Kangana Ranaut's Rejoinder Curfew In Bangladesh, Military On Streets After 105 Die In Clashes Kerala Health Minister Convenes High-Level Meet Over Suspected Nipah Virus Economic Survey To Be Tabled In Parliament On Monday, A Day Before Budget Mahindra Thar 5-Door Revealed; Named Thar Roxx Track Latest News Live on NDTV.com and get news updates from India and around the world.