That, of course, made political sense. Mulayam sewed up the Muslim vote in Uttar Pradesh and kept abusing the Bharatiya Janata Party. So now, what's up? Suddenly, he doesn't appear to be as inimical towards those ``communalists'' who are out to ravage the nation?

Let's take this chronologically. Around November 1998, Mulayam was the votary-in-chief of the Congress. In the preceding Lok Sabha elections, he had entered into an alliance with that party in Maharashtra, and he was virtually tripping over his own feet supplicating before 10 Jan Path.

That was before Sonia Gandhi decided to apologise for the Congress ``role'' in the demolition of the Babri Masjid, and then appointed Salman Khursheed to head the UP unit of the party. Khursheed made is clear that, contrary to Mulayam's desires, the Congress would not piggyback on another party in the polls and would try and recover lost territory. That meant that the Congress would woo back the minorities, as well.

Mulayam was flummoxed. His domain was being infiltrated. He could no longer enjoy shouting rights as the champion of secularism.

So suddenly the Congress was out. Not openly, but definitely enemy no.1. He couldn't say it out in public, but the BJP was less of a threat, after all the Congress was targeting what he considered his pocket vote bank and appeared to be picking his pocket quite ably.

After the BJP-led Government was pulled down, Mulayam realised that a Congress Government would further undermine his position. More to the point, he was aghast to find the Congress chummying up to the Bahujan Samaj Party. Together, that could mean ruin for him in UP. So he scuttled the formation of an alternative regime.

But that didn't make that threat go away. So he's got more to do. So he had fixer-in-chief Amar Singh, his won Chandraswami, to hold a meeting with BJP leaders Arun Jaitley and Narendra Modi. And while Singh may scream that he was meeting Jaitley on a legal matter, apparently BJP president Kushabhau Thakre was also supposed to attend that meeting but cried off.

Not only that, even when the chaos over Government formation was in progress, Mulayam was busy cosying up to appendages of the BJP. Like George Fernandes and Ramakrishna Hegde, in certain secret meetings. Suddenly, the Samata Party's spokesman Digvijay Singh found in Mulayam a ``great leader''!

So what's cooking. Mulayam's goose for sure. But other than that, having realised that the SP could get devastated in his home State, Mulayam may have decided, with a little prodding from his new-found friends, that he will play spoiler with a vengeance. According to insiders, there are rumours that Mulayam may field Muslim candidates in UP constituencies where the Congress appear strong just so that the vote can be split. That the BJP could romp home by default matters little to him, since, as we said, the Congress is the ``real threat.'' And, not only in UP, that strategy could be extended throughout the country.

Obviously that also means the end to his bonhomie with the Left parties and Laloo Prasad Yadav. But does Mulayam care? No. He just desperately wants the Congress off the scene. He's almost paranoiac on that score. And if the BJP forms the Government come elections 1999, courtesy Mulayam's shenanigans, big deal!!