FIle photo: SP Supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav
The BJP assesses that Mulayam Singh Yadav's walkout from the "grand alliance" in Bihar is not just to do with his party being given fewer seats to contest than he wanted.
"We don't think it's about five seats. At their rally at Gandhi Maidan, the crowds were only a fourth of that present at the PM's rally. The Samajwadi Party saw this and realised that the alliance doesn't have much strength in it," said BJP leader and union minister Rajiv Pratap Rudy.
The grand alliance brings together parties that want to keep the BJP from wresting power in Bihar, where elections will be held by November. Leaders of the alliance came together at a mega rally in Patna on Sunday; while Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, regional heavyweight Lalu Yadav and Congress chief Sonia Gandhi addressed the rally, Mulayam Singh Yadav did not attend, sending his brother Shivpal Yadav to represent him.
Today, Mr Yadav said his party was exiting the alliance and would contest the Bihar elections on its own.
Mr Rudy said Mr Yadav's decision is a big blow to Nitish Kumar. "He was accepted as the alliance's presumptive chief minister only at the intervention of Mulayam," the BJP leader alleged.
He also said that Mr Yadav's big announcement was preceded by one that did not hit headlines in the same way, but was "very significant" - the decision of Sharad Pawar's Nationalist Congress Party to walk out of the alliance last month.
"They tried to show that a big alliance was coming together," Mr Rudy said.
Like the NCP, the Samajwadi Party is not a major player in Bihar. But the break-up today is seen as a dent in the unity of parties that have grouped against the BJP.
The BJP has dismissed speculation that Mulayam Singh's move today is designed to benefit it. "There is no question of any understanding with Mulayam," said the party's GVL Narasimha Rao.