The Congress strategy in the last few weeks has been to win over as many SP office-bearers and workers as possible since both parties had ruled out a tie-up in the forthcoming election. Their alliance in 1998 had enormously benefitted the Congress to elicit support from the Muslims, mainly in Bhiwandi, Nashik and certain parts of Mumbai. ``SP is now helping communal forces; it doesn't represent the interests of the Muslims any longer. There was noway we could have stayed on in the party,'' said Dalwai.

The breaking point, according to Dalwai and others, came when Mulayam Singh hobnobbed with the BJP and even made overtures to the Shiv Sena. Sources said that at the party's executive meeting last week, an MLA had threatened to walk out of the party if this trend carried on. Understandably, Congress leaders are in an upbeat mood about the development and insist that Dalwai's entry was ``a totally unconditional'' one. Pradesh Congress Committee president Prataprao Bhosale asserted that there was simply no question of giving tickets to any SP entrant.

Meanwhile, in a knee-jerk reaction to the sudden developments, SP today claimed that the party national general secretary Amar Singh had secured Dalwai's resignation yesterday morning hours before he joined the Congress. ``Dalwai was actually sacked from the party for his anti-party activities, so there was no question of his quitting the party or a split in the party, said Mumbai unit chief Abu AsimAzmi.

Then, in a shocking revelation, Azmi claimed that the Congress had made overtures to him too - for a price. He said that there was talk of Rs two crore changing hands already and Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad had offered him even more. ``Dalwai was anyway a Congress spy and his exit will not affect the SP in Maharashtra,'' Azmi added. Congress leaders explained the suddenness of the event saying that yesterday's Delhi drama was necessary so that Dalwai and others would be safe. If they had declared their intentions earlier or we had disclosed this earlier, there was real danger to them, a senior leader stated. Dalwai and others flew to Delhi last evening, joined the party and later met Congress president Sonia Gandhi.The latest political development has given a new turn to the undercurrents between the two parties for the Muslim vote. The fight to capture this votebank is expected to gain momentum in the next few weeks.