In his press statement earlier in the afternoon, Mulayam said, “Some reports in the media, attributing Congress sources have said that they (Congress) cannot give me a reprieve in some corruption case¿ I have strong evidence of my innocence and if I went public with it, many of my friends in Congress would come under scrutiny¿ I want to remind them that I have been in jail for 19 months during the Emergency and did not bow down before Indiraji like several tall Opposition leaders.”

Saying he was “personally hurt” that Congress sources had alleged to the media that the SP used the political coordination to “further the interests of corporate houses, allotment of personal residences, land for the party’s national office and getting a reprieve from corruption cases,” he attempted to refute some charges.

“Officials from the Urban Development Ministry came to me and Amar Singh and gave us details of land for SP’s national office before the trust vote. However, these officials vanished after the UPA won the trust vote with the SP’s support. Our demand for the allocation for gas to the Dadri Power Project and Power Industry in UP was made to the Government and not to Mukesh Ambani,” Mulayam said. He did, however, take a dig at AICC general secretary in-charge of Uttar Pradesh, Digvijay Singh, for his links with a family connected to Ambani’s company. “Digvijay Singh has staked claim for the candidature of the wife of Sandeep Tandon, who is a senior executive of Mukesh Ambani,” said the statement.

Later, however, the SP leaders met the Prime Minister in a bid to patch up the fraying ties between the two parties and to present their grievances about “formal and informal media leaks”.