After successive victories chalked up by the Opposition in the recent by-elections in Uttar Pradesh, the Samajwadi Party (SP), which won three of the four by-polls, has been unusually quiet, except for issuing an occasional statement against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) or staging a protest cyclothon. There is yet no word on when the SP will cement its alliance with the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), although the partnership with Ajit Singh’s Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) got off the ground after success in the Kairana and the Noorpur by-polls in May.
The apparent dormancy has led the BJP to presume