As the counting of votes for the bypolls progressed and trends started coming in, there were celebrations and euphoria at the Congress office, firecrackers were burst near the residence of BSP chief Mayawati, but the office of the Samajwadi Party wore a deserted look.

Till yesterday, the SP office was buzzing with activity, with party president Mulayam Singh Yadav and general secretary Amar Singh there making rounds amid the usual crowd of hangers-on.

On Tuesday morning, however, only a handful of party workers could be seen there, discussing and anaylsing the trends.

One among them blamed the ruling BSP of rigging the elections. Or else, how could SP lose its strongholds like Bhathana, which Mulayam Singh himself had vacated, or Firozabad from where his daughter-in-law Dimple was contesting?

Another blamed senior leaders for not drawing the right lessons from the party’s unsatisfactory performance in the Lok Sabha elections. Asked where the crowds had gone, party spokesperson Rajendra Chaudhry said, “Most of the party workers are at vote counting centres. Others will come to office in the evening.”

Office staff and a few party workers were glued to TV since morning in three rooms. Till around noon, they thought the early trends showing SP candidates trailing could be reversed. But by 2 pm, when the defeat seemed certain, they lost all hope and interest. In one room, the TV was switched off and everybody went out for tea. In the other, they switched to Discovery channel.

A party worker from Balia district said, “This is shameful we could not save even Firozabad seat where our own bahu Dimple is contesting. If senior leaders do not seriously think over it, SP will have no future in UP.”

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