Inside Story: Sonia Gandhi reason behind Mulayam deserting Lalu, Nitish?

In a jolt to the "grand alliance" in Bihar, the Samajwadi Party on Thursday pulled out of the Nitish-Lalu combine, saying it felt "humiliated" at not being consulted on seat sharing and decided to contest the Assembly elections in the state on its own.

Inside Story: Sonia Gandhi reason behind Mulayam deserting Lalu, Nitish?
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Lucknow: In a jolt to the "grand alliance" in Bihar, the Samajwadi Party on Thursday pulled out of the Nitish-Lalu combine, saying it felt "humiliated" at not being consulted on seat sharing and decided to contest the Assembly elections in the state on its own.

SP National General Secretary Ram Gopal Yadav told reporters here that "In Bihar the party will contest separately. The bigger parties in the alliance did not consult us while declaring seats due to which the SP felt humiliated. This is not the 'gatbandhan dharma'".

Yadav added that the party was not happy with the paltry two or five seats offered out of the 243 in the state Assembly.

Also Read: 'Insulted' Samajwadi Party walks out of 'Janata Parivar', to contest Bihar polls alone

The JD-U and Lalu Prasad-led RJD have been allotted 100 seats each while the Congress got 40. The NCP was given three seats.

The decision on Bihar was taken at a party parliamentary board meeting in the presence of SP national president Mulayam Singh Yadav.

However, as per media reports, the real reason why Mulayam deserted Lalu and Nitish was Congress president Sonia Gandhi.

The SP chief was reportedly miffed at the duo for having made Sonia the face of the Swabhiman Rally that was held in Patna on Sunday.

Reports also said that Mulayam was not ready to accept Sonia as their leader.

SP national president had kept away from Janata Parivar’s rally in Bihar, an alliance of which he was the architect and had sent his brother Ram Gopal Yadav instead.

In the past also it has been seen that Mulayam has always kept away from sharing the stage with the Gandhis despite extending support to the Congress from time to time. 

Not been will forget when Mulayam had taken Congress by surprise in the 1990s by going for a mid-term polls in Uttar Pradesh.

This was when late PM Rajiv Gandhi had told Congress leader Narain Dutt Tiwari to call on the then UP governor and withdraw support to Mulayam's government.

The SP is a major constituent of a six-party combine which had met early this year in Delhi in which all the Janata Parivar groups decided to merge together to take on the BJP at the national level.

Bihar is due to go to polls likely in October or November and Lalu, Nitish are in a bitter battle with Prime Minister Narendra Modi to win the state.

(With PTI inputs)

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