NEW DELHI, July 5: Laloo Prasad Yadav proved his detractors wrong by mobilising 18 of the 45 Lok Sabha MPs to cause a formal split in the Janata Dal. In addition, he left behind 6 Lok Sabha MPs from Karnataka to torment the majority faction.

A shocked Sharad Yadav who will don the mantle of the truncated party tomorrow, refused to believe that a split has taken place. He claimed ``they will all come back in 2 hours time. Our strength will go up to 46 in the Lok Sabha.''

Prime Minister Inder Kumar Gujral watched the developments helplessly. He may have cast his vote as per the Supreme Court directive. But he does not know which Janata Dal he belongs to. He refused to meet Sharad Yadav today due to his pre-occupations.

He has decided to play safe and retain three Union Ministers, Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, Kanti Singh and Jainarain, although they joined the Rashtriya Janata Dal today.

R L Jalappa and S R Bommai boycotted the presidential polls at Laloo's behest and promised to fight for his cause within the party.

Gujral's argument in retaining three Laloo MPs in his council of ministers is that there is no reason why MPs belonging to his party could not be retained as they had pledged support to the UF. After all, Balwant Singh Ramoowalia and YK Alagh did not represent any party.

Former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda, who is the chairman of the United Front's steering committee, left for Shirdi this evening in the hope of staging a comeback as soon as he heard about the split.

Gowda plans to keep Laloo's Rashtriya Janata Dal out of the UF with the help of his Left allies and others. Although Laloo has already been invited to attend the July 8 United Front's steering committee meeting, Andhra Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu is finding ways to wriggle out of the situation.

Interestingly, Deve Gowda has been trying out his own games. He is said to have contacted Laloo's confidante Prem Gupta, a Rajya Sabha MP this morning and deputed C M Ibrahim and Srikant Jena to speak to the Bihar Chief Minister not to split the party.

Gowda sent word that a patch-up formula could be discussed after making Sharad Yadav resign from the post of the Janata Dal's president soon after his election.

Laloo refused to buy the bait and warned that no senior leader dare enter the Bihar Bhawan territory. He has decided to become a regional leader instead of playing a national role.

``If Karunanidhi, Chandrababu Naidu, GK Moopanar, Mulayam Singh Yadav are dictating terms, why can't Laloo do the same in Bihar ?'' asked one of his strategists.

He went to say,``Neither Sharad Yadav nor Devendra Prasad Yadav or even Ram Vilas Paswan can think of winning election without Laloo in Bihar. It will be BJP vs Laloo in Bihar. The Congress and the CPI has already lent support to us.''

In fact, supporters of Sharad Yadav were considerably demoralised today as Laloo preferred extermination instead of subordination. He refused to become a Sharad Pawar, tamed by Sitaram Kesri.