The MP from Maharashtra who acted as a link between RLM leaders and the Congress till recently was referring to the vociferous demand for Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee's resignation by RLM MPs in the House at a time when the Congress, which has come up trumps in the November 25 Assembly elections, chose to keep quiet.

RLM chairman Mulayam Singh Yadav, however, does not think the election results amount to pronouncement of the death sentence on the third force. ``They merely showed that the people were fed up with the BJP. They voted for the Congress because it was the only alternative.''

Mulayam may have a point, for the three north Indian states which went to the polls have a long history of bipartisan political competition. However, the RLM didcontest more than 120 seats in these elections. In fact, with his friend, Laloo Prasad Yadav of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), in a Bihar jail, Mulayam was the principal campaigner for the RLM candidates.

The fact that despite this, the Morcha was unable to make a dent in the anti-BJP votes -- especially in Muslim-dominated areas -- must ring alarm bells among the camp followers of the two Yadav chieftains from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. After all, the Muslim vote bank provided the edifice on which they had hoped to rebuild their social justice empire.

It is clear now that the increasing bellicosity of Samajwadi Party and RJD leaders towards the Congress has not been prompted by Sonia Gandhi's reluctance to step into Vajpayee's shoes alone. RLM leaders wanted Sonia to upset the BJP's applecart before the elections so that they could be in a position to extract their pound of flesh. Far from doing that, when the Congress began poaching on what the two Yadavs considered their own political fiefdom, theyturned hostile towards the party. Now, after the elections, they find themselves in a no-win situation.

In his campaign speeches, Mulayam had squarely blamed the Congress for the rise of communalism in the Hindi belt and described Sonia's apology for the Babri Masjid demolition as ``a hoax''. RLM spokesperson and Mulayam's Man Friday, Amar Singh, had gone to the extent of empathising with former Congress MP S.S. Ahluwalia for his anti-Sonia tirade.

Congress sources confirm that Mulayam's anger against the party acquired more intensity after his meeting with Sonia before the elections. ``He wanted us to trust him. But Sonia knew how he had ditched the late Rajiv Gandhi,'' a Congress Working Committee member said.

In 1991, when Rajiv Gandhi had decided to force mid-term elections by withdrawing support to the Chandra Shekhar government, the Congress had been keen to continue support to the Mulayam government in Uttar Pradesh. However, Mulayam, who had been trying to work out a deal with Rajiv's politicalaides till the last, had left Delhi in the midst of talks, flown to Lucknow in the early hours of the morning, driven straight to Uttar Pradesh Raj Bhawan and recommended dissolution of the state Assembly.

The volte-face had taken Congress leaders by surprise. Before the then UPCC chief, N.D. Tiwari, had got to know about the move and and rushed to Raj Bhawan to insist that Mulayam's recommendation was not binding as his government had been reduced to a minority following the withdrawal of Congress support, mid-term polls had been ordered in the state.

The Assembly elections that followed may not have enabled Mulayam to regain his lost paradise in the state immediately but they had proved the beginning of the end for the Congress. For the first time, the party had failed to emerge even as the principal opposition in the state in those polls. Successive elections in 1993, 1996 and 1998 had seen its continuous fall down the hill.

If Mulayam finds the prospects of a Congress comeback worrisome in UttarPradesh -- specially in the wake of the unconcealed attack on his brand of politics by new UPCC chief Salman Khurshid -- his newly acquired friend Laloo is only slightly better placed in Bihar.

Compared to Uttar Pradesh and Delhi, Laloo's RJD has managed to do well in the Assembly by-elections in Bihar. But the state Congress leaders are now openly attacking him and pressing the party high command to dissociate itself from him.

Laloo realises that with the fodder scam charges slapped against him, he needs as many friends as he can get. And also that like Mulayam, he would remain relevant to national politics only as long as can keep his political empire free from Congress poachers.

It was this political compulsion that had forced the two Yadav leaders -- who bayed for each other's blood till the 1998 elections -- to mend fences, forge the RLM and offer support to Sonia for a non-BJP government.

``Yes we wanted Sonia to be the Prime Minister. But we hoped to have a Sonia on the crutches of the RLM andthe Left. We cannot play ball if Sonia is bent on finishing us off,'' an SP leader admits.