Mayavati meets Harkishen Singh Surjeet’s widow, Pritam Kaur, and grandson in Delhi as Brinda Karat looks on (Prem Singh).

New Delhi, Aug. 2: The CPM believes that Mulayam Singh Yadav and Amar Singh decided to join hands with the Congress to shield themselves from pending court cases.

The accusation comes in a note on the “current situation and our approach”, adopted at the CPM’s July 19-20 central committee meeting. The note has a special section titled “Samajwadi Party’s betrayal”.

The CPM offers one other reason for the Congress-Samajwadi alliance: both parties thought it impossible to fight Mayavati alone in Uttar Pradesh.

The note also explains why the CPM anticipates an early election: “The type of demands being made by the Samajwadi Party and other smaller parties for supporting the government will damage its image and make the running of the government untenable.”

Mulayam is taken to task for his “betrayal”. The Samajwadi chief, the note says, had issued statements against the nuclear deal in his capacity as United National Progressive Alliance chairman.

“The betrayal of their (the Samajwadis’) own stand and of the UNPA came along with their making a deal with the Congress…. (The) cases against Mulayam Singh and Amar Singh and corporate interests are involved.”

Mulayam and his relatives are fighting assets cases.

One major worry for the Samajwadis, the CPM believes, was how to counter Mayavati in Uttar Pradesh. “They feared that in the given situation, the BSP would sweep the Lok Sabha elections. They also felt the necessity to get protection of the central government from Mayavati’s attacks and cases against their leaders.”

Congress leaders too realised they would be “liquidated in UP if they fight alone” and this “mutual need led to the understanding that the SP will support the nuclear deal… and they would work out seat-sharing understanding in UP.”

The note suggests the party will not consider a post-poll alliance with the Congress — a point CPM general secretary Prakash Karat recently appeared to make in a television interview.

“Our attitude to the other non-Congress parties and non-BJP parties will be determined by their attitude to the BJP or the Congress. We have to see what will be the relation of the UPA partners to the Congress,” the CPM says.

“In Andhra Pradesh, since the Telugu Desam Party has taken a firm stand against the nuclear deal and condemned the defection of the Samajwadis to the Congress, we should take it into account while determining our approach. In Assam, if the AGP goes with the BJP, then there can be no understanding with them.”