In a rebuke to the Congress after it declared it would not field candidates on seven seats for key leaders of the SP-BSP-RLD alliance in Uttar Pradesh, BSP chief Mayawati on Monday asked the grand-old party to refrain from creating misconceptions.
Ms. Mayawati said the SP-BSP-RLD combine was “fully capable” of defeating the BJP in U.P. and did not need the Congress creating any “misconceptions,” a sentiment echoed by her alliance partner Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav.
“The Congress is free to field candidates on all 80 seats in Uttar Pradesh and fight the elections alone. Our alliance is fully capable of defeating the BJP on its own,” said Ms. Mayawati in a tweet.
She asked the Congress to not “forcibly spread the misconceptions of having left seven seats for the alliance.”
Her ally Mr. Yadav re-tweeted her statement.
“The Congress should not try to create any sort of confusion,” Mr. Yadav said.
As part of their alliance, the BSP is contesting 38 out of the 80 seats in UP, while the SP has been alloted 37 and the RLD three, all in West UP. The alliance decided to not field candidates in Rae Bareli and Amethi, arguing it was to ensure the Congress top leadership from being restricted to campaigning in their own constituencies.
On Sunday, the Congress announced that it would not field candidates in Mainpuri, Firozabad, and Kannauj, where the members of the Yadav clan will contest, and in constituencies where the top leadership of the three parties could contest, including Ms. Mayawati herself.
However, Ms. Mayawati did not react well to the proposal by the Congress, reiterating that her party would have nothing to do with the Congress in the 2019 Lok Sabha election.
“The BSP wants to clarify once again that in UP and the rest of the country, we don’t have my alliance or accord with the Congress whatsoever,” Ms. Mayawati said.
She also appealed her people to “not fall for the rumours” being spread by the Congress.
Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, the Congress general-secretary in-charge of east UP, was asked about Ms. Mayawati’s snub by reporters during her Ganga Yatra from Prayagraj to Varanasi. “There is no need for anybody to get annoyed.
We have the same target that is to defeat the BJP. Because the BJP has an anti-people, anti-farmer, anti-women government where nobody can raise their voice,” Ms. Vadra told reporters.