The Congress-SP bonhomie at UPA’s fourth anniversary dinner on May 22 has cost the SP dear. A day later on Friday, its general secretary Naresh Agarwal resigned from the party and on Saturday submitted his resignation from the Assembly membership.

The reason for deserting his old friend and SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav just before Lok Sabha elections — as explained by him in a letter to Mulayam — is the influence of a ‘caucus’ which has overpowered the party. “The party is working as an agent of filmstars and corporate houses, their benefit and their advice is everything for the party today,” Agarwal told the media after submitting his resignation to UP Assembly Speaker Sukhdev Rajbhar on Saturday morning.

After the UP Assembly elections, in a meeting at SP’s senior leader Janeshwar Mishra’s residence, Agarwal had suggested to the party leadership not to go ahead with its UNPA venture as it was not in sync with the party’s nature and character. “Influential leaders like Jayalalithaa distanced herself from the UNPA because of this caucus only,” Agarwal had argued. At the meeting, he had also advised the leadership to mend fences with the Congress. “The suggestion was brushed aside after Amar Singh offered to resign from the party if it went with the Congress,” Agarwal has said in his letter. Singh, who had declared Agarwal “an agent of Congress” at the party’s Meerut convention in January, was seen rubbing shoulders with Congress leaders at the UPA dinner. There has been speculation that the seven-time MLA from Hardoi may contest the Dhaurehra parliamentary seat on a BSP ticket.