'Mulayam wanted to topple UPA-1'

In a chat with a US embassy Poloff (political officer) on December 3, 2004, Congress leader Rashid Alvi said Mulayam Singh Yadav asked DMK, (the then third largest UPA partner) to withdraw support.

In a chat with a US embassy Poloff (political officer) on December 3, 2004, Congress leader Rashid Alvi said Mulayam Singh Yadav asked DMK, (the then third largest UPA partner) to withdraw support. US Ambassador David Mulford's cable on December 7, 2004, also mentioned BJP has no plan to regain power.

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Mulayam Singh Yadav's SP had been an outside supporter of the UPA since the inception of the coalition government in 2004. It also bailed out the government in the Lok Sabha trust vote of 2008 after the Left parties with their 60 MPs pulled out their support over the Indo-US civilian nuclear agreement, forcing the government to test its strength in the Lok Sabha.

The cable said: "Alvi revealed that Congress is far more worried about Mulayam Singh Yadav than the BJP.

According to Alvi, Mulayam has approached DMK chief M Karunanidhi to convince him to pull his party out of the UPA government and join with the SP to form a new government. Alvi claimed that Karunanidhi was not interested in the proposal, which cannot succeed without support from the Communists.

Even as Mulayam wanted to topple the UPA in its initial months, he offered to join the government when the second UPA was facing hiccups with the TMC over anti-naxal operations. The Congress, however, is determined to go alone against SP and BSP in the upcoming UP polls.

Mulford also remarked that "The BJP's behaviour... do little to convince us that the party has overcome its problems or have a strategy to regain power."