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[aryan]

NEW DELHI: Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh ahead of the Cabinet reshuffle to trigger speculation about the UP-based party's desire to join the Union government.

Sources denied SP will join the Centre in the ministerial rejig. But Mulayam's public offer to Congress last year that SP would be a more dependable ally than Trinamool Congress saw his visit to the PMO raise eyebrows.

Mulayam called on the PM on Monday evening. Approached by TOI, he said he told the PM that home ministry had withdrawn security cover to key party leaders, putting at risk Ramgopal Yadav, Brijbhushan Saran Singh, Akhilesh Yadav and Dharmendra among others. "There was no talk of joining the government," he said.

But few believed the SP chief's denials with the news leaked to Congressmen through inhouse contacts sparking intense discussions. A senior leader termed the meeting ahead of the reshuffle as too much of a coincidence and said SP's desire to join the Centre figured in talks. "They have certain Cabinet berths in mind," he said.

The PMO visit raised antennae among friends and foes alike because the Yadav chieftain offered partnership with UPA six months ago in a meeting with top Congress managers. He later said the willingess to join the Centre was to relieve it of Mamata's maverick ways. Samajwadis pose a tricky problem for Congress because of a clash between its revival strategy in the state and its compulsions at the Centre. A pact with SP interferes with Rahul Gandhi's 'Mission UP' where he wants to revive the organisation by going it alone in elections.