With the Congress going whole hog to woo it, Samajwadi Party on Wednesday appeared to delink the issue of support to the United Progressive Alliance government from the nuclear deal projecting communalism as the "biggest challenge" facing the country.
Party general secretary Amar Singh claimed that even the Left, which has threatened to withdraw support to UPA government, was against early Lok Sabha polls.
"During my talks with Karat, I requested him to unite against communalism. Even he is against early general elections," Amar Singh said.
Amar Singh's comments came after hectic parleys amongst its top leadership, including party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav who on Tuesday made it plain that there were "no political enemies" for SP.
The remarks were interpreted as signals that SP, having 39 members, was ready to do business with the Congress-led UPA in the event of the Left parties pulling the rug.
Amar Singh, however, sidestepped a volley of questions over whether SP would support the nuclear deal. Mulayam Singh Yadav too was evasive over the issue.
Amar Singh's refrain was that communal forces posed a bigger danger to the country and secular forces would ill afford an early Lok Sabha elections.
"Communalism is the biggest challenge facing the country today. We identified it as a major issue during the meeting of the party's parliamentary board," Amar Singh said.
The SP general secretary also claimed that the United National Progressive Alliance, which is meeting in Delhi on Thursday in the backdrop of the political stalemate over the nuclear deal, would not split over the issue and continue to be united.
"We will not break and our policies will also not break," he said.
Amar Singh dismissed as "big lie" reports suggesting that SP was angling for key Cabinet berths at the Centre in lieu of its support.
The SP leader projected that the BJP and the Bahujan Samaj Party were coming together. "This was clear from Advani's rally in Kanpur recently, where he declared SP as BJP's enemy number one. He opened all his cards there and showed his openness towards BSP," Amar Singh said.
Attacking the BSP, Amar Singh said that Mayawati openly campaigned for Narendra Modi during Gujarat polls "and it became clear from Advani's speech in Kanpur that BSP is the B-team of the BJP."
Describing BSP as a party that plays "opportunistic politics", Amar Singh said that it has ditched SP, Congress and even BJP thrice in the past, "yet BJP is now wooing BSP."
Earlier in the day, Mulayam Singh Yadav arrived at Amar Singh's residence in Delhi and after a brief meeting, both the leaders left for party colleague Janeshwar Mishra's residence.
After an hour-long meeting with Mishra, both Amar Singh and Mulayam Singh Yadav left. Amar Singh told mediapersons waiting outside Mishra's residence that their meeting with National Security Adviser M K Narayanan would be held in the evening at 5 pm. He refused to divulge the venue of the meeting.