Mayawati, a former chief of India's Uttar Pradesh state, on Sunday declared that her Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) will go solo in the Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand state polls, set to be held early next year.
The statement was made to clarify rumours suggesting that this time the BSP may form an alliance with the Asaduddin Owaisi-led All India Majlis-e-Ittehad-ul-Muslimeen (AIMIM). The BSP was previously in an alliance with the Samajwadi Party (SP).
Mayawati took to Twitter to emphasise that her party had only announced a political tie-up with Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) for the Punjab polls, also to be held next year.
The two parties have also finalised a seat-sharing agreement in the 117-member assembly in Punjab state, according to which the BSP will contest polls for 20 seats and the Sukhbir Singh Badal-led SAD will fight for 97 seats.
"There is news that has been run on a media news channel since yesterday that the AIMIM and BSP will fight the upcoming assembly elections in UP together. This news is completely false, misleading, and baseless. There is not even an iota of truth to this and the BSP vehemently denies it. In this regard, it is again clarified that except Punjab, the BSP will not contest the UP and Uttarakhand state polls early next year in alliance with any part, meaning it will go it alone", Mayawati tweeted in Hindi.
Earlier this week, former state chief and Samajwadi Party head Akhilesh Yadav told media that he was disappointed with the failed tie-ups with Mayawati's BSP and Congress and hence decided that his party would join forces with likeminded smaller parties.
He also said that Congress is "too weak" in Uttar Pradesh to beat the governing Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP).
On Friday, state BJP President Swatantra Dev Singh informed the media that the next Uttar Pradesh assembly elections will be contested under the leadership of current state chief Yogi Adityanath. His comment came days after deputy state chief Keshav Prasad Maurya said the party's national leadership would decide under whom the upcoming elections will be fought.