Samajwadi Party (SP) has refused to take the blame for the split in the UNPA following its decision to support the UPA government on the nuclear deal, saying the leaders left the coalition themselves.

"It (UNPA) split on its own. The leaders left it themselves," SP Chief Mulayam Singh Yadav told Outlook Saptahik magazine.

On choosing former president A P J Abdul Kalam for seeking advice on the nuclear deal, Yadav said, "It was INLD chief Om Prakash Chautala who suggested Kalam's name for consultation on the issue."

“Since I was the UNPA president, I went to meet Kalam who said that India will lag behind in the strategic field if the deal does not get through. What is left after a scientist of Kalam's stature agreeing to the deal?” Yadav added.

Asked how he felt after parting ways with the Left, the SP leader said that the CPI(M) leader Prakash Karat and CPI's A B Bardhan were his good old friends.

"These relations were neither built on political basis nor it will break on political lines. We haven't left them (Left parties). They are going on their own way and we are on ours. Our relations with them will continue," the SP Chief quipped.

Noting that Left's concern over the deal led to raising of some questions in their minds, he said that it was government's assurance for not compromising on country's sovereignty and independent foreign policy that led to us supporting the deal.