Freedom through Fidelity

leaders of the dominant factions had resisted the temptation to support or join rump governments formed by turncoats from other parties. It is not, of course, the Congress alone which has suffered. The short-sighted opportunism with which the SSP in Bihar and UP, to take an example, handed out party tickets to disgruntled Congressmen, who had been refused Congress tickets, for the general elections did, no doubt, contribute to the SSP's rather satisfactory election performance in the two States, but it has also had the effect of disrupting the party units there and to a lesser or greater extent put them beyond the control of the national leadership of the party.