A day after the ruling BJP swept the Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council bypolls, BSP supremo Mayawati on Tuesday lashed out at the Samajwadi Party for fielding Dalit and OBC candidates despite knowing that the numbers were stacked against them. She also appealed to the Dalit and backward class people to be careful with the Samajwadi Party.

She alleged that the Akhilesh Yadav-led party ignored these sections when it was in power.

The saffron party sailed comfortably in the legislative council bypolls held on Monday, with both its candidates Manvendra Singh and Padmasen Chowdhary posting comfortable wins over SP’s Ram Jatan Rajbhar and Ramkaran.

“In the UP Legislative Council by-elections to two seats held yesterday, the SP fielded Dalit and OBC candidates even though the defeat was certain, and got them defeated. The party ignored them when it was in power… proves that the conspiracies of the SP against these sentions has not changed even a bit,” Mayawati tweeted in Hindi.

Cautioning the backward sections against the “nefarious designs” of the Samajwadi Party, she said in another tweet, “Dalits, OBCs and marginalised people have suffered a lot due to such narrow and hateful politics of SP and its government. That’s why there is a dire need for these sections to be always careful and avoid such losses in future. This is the appeal of the BSP.”

The opposition unity suffered a blow in the MLC bypolls, with Congress legislators not casting their votes even as the lone BSP MLA could not make it to Lucknow to exercise his right.

Based on its numerical strength in the legislative assembly, the Bharatiya Janata Party was comfortably placed to secure victory for both its candidates. The SP had entered into the fray at the last moment apparently to give a message that it would not give a walkover to the ruling party.