The results of the 1998 Lok Sabha elections have possibly emboldened Mulayam Singh Yadav into imagining that there is a potential political base for his party in Maharashtra. While SP candidates narrowly missed getting elected in two high-profile Mumbai seats, the party's tie-up with the Congress ensured that the latter romped home with 33 out of 48 seats. The Yadav factor may not work in theseregions, but the Muslim factor certainly does and that is why Mulayam Singh and his compatriot from Bihar are working overtime to consolidate this particular votebank. Sunday's rally was alive with demands that the guilty of the '92-'93 riots be brought to book and condemnations of the attempt made by the Joshi government to deport alleged Bangladeshis -- both of which are extremely emotive issues for Muslims, not just in Maharashtra but all over India.

But there is a larger agenda at play here. Each of the two leaders in his own way is fighting a battle for political clout. Mulayam Singh finds himself outflanked on homeground by Uttar Pradesh's wily BJP chief minister -- for the moment at least. With the BSP's Mayawati refusing to play ball, he knows that the only way he can make significant gains in UP would be by striking a deal with the Congress to form a government at the Centre. This was why there was no public criticism of the Congress at Sunday's rally, despite the Pachmarhi deliberations clearlyindicating that the party is not exactly jumping with enthusiasm to form a coalition government. Laloo Prasad has an even more urgent constraint to reckon with. With the threat of President's rule hanging over his wife's government, he needs to marshal together as many forces as he can for his own political survival. In other words, both state satraps realise that the only way to ensure pre-eminence in their own states is to consolidate outside them. This is why Sunday found both of them shouting in unison for the need to topple the Vajpayee government. The problem, of course, is that a strongly sectarian profile cuts both ways. Parties that have wooed a particular religious or caste community assiduously for electoral gains may augment their popular appeal in the short-term but stand to lose credibility in the long-term. Already the Congress has indicated that it is reluctant to strike deals with casteist forces. Both Yadavs must try and understand why a certain notoriety continues to be attached to theirrespective parties.