Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati, on Saturday, said that some rival parties were spreading rumours about the BSP forming an alliance ahead of the Lok Sabha polls.

The BSP chief reiterated her party’s stand to contest the Lok Sabha on its own.

 The BSP supremo wrote on X that her party was preparing to contest the Lok Sabha elections with full preparation and strength.

“Rumours about BSP forming electoral alliances or a third front are false and misleading. The media should maintain its credibility by not giving such mischievous news. People should also remain cautious,” she wrote on X.

“Especially in Uttar Pradesh, due to the BSP’s considerable strength in fighting elections alone, the rival parties appear quite anxious. Therefore, they continue to try to mislead people by spreading various rumours on a daily basis. However, the decision of the BSP to contest the elections alone, in the interest of the Bahujan society, remains firm,” Mayawati said in her statement in Hindi.

In February also Mayawati had dismissed reports of her party forging a coalition as rumours, as efforts were being made by Congress leaders to include the BSP in the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA).

Congress’ Uttar Pradesh in-charge Avinash Pande had last month said that the doors of INDIA bloc were open for the BSP for a united fight against the Bharatiya Janata Party in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls.

Congress and Samajwadi Party are the two constituents of the INDIA bloc. Both the parties have reached an agreement on sharing seats in UP for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. Congress will contest 17 Lok Sabha seats in UP while Akhilesh Yadav’s party and other INDIA bloc partners will field candidates on the remaining 63 seats.

Mayawati’s statement has come four days after the Bharat Rashtra Samithi and BSP on Tuesday decided to have an alliance in Telangana for the coming Lok Sabha polls. This was announced by BRS president and former chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao and state BSP president RS Praveen Kumar.

Rao had said he would speak to BSP supremo Mayawati soon and that Kumar had already spoken to her regarding the matter.

The BSP decision is likely to be biggest hurdle for INDIA bloc, which hopes to make a clean sweep on the Muslim dominated seats in UP in the Lok Sabha election. However, Mayawati is in no mood to allow the SP-Congress alliance a cakewalk so far Muslim votes are concerned and this became evident when she decided to field Dr Mujahid Hussain from Amroha Lok Sabha constituency.

Hussain’s candidature assumes importance for the INDIA bloc as the Amroha seat has been given to the Congress by the SP, and it has decided to field sitting BSP MP Danish Ali. Former BSP MP had also attended Rahul Gandhi’s ongoing Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra earlier. The Muslims constitute around 35 per cent of the total electorate in Amroha Lok Sabha constituency.

Danish Ali, who had contested the 2019 Lok Sabha poll from Amroha as the joint candidate of SP and BSP, had defeated Bharatiya Janata Party’s Kanwar Singh Tanwar by a margin of over 64,000 votes. Any division in the Muslim votes may dent his chances this time.