A day after Congress announced that it would leave seven Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh for the SP-BSP-RLD alliance, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav and Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati said that their alliance was capable of defeating the Bharatiya Janata Party on its own.

In a series of tweets, Mayawati said: “BSP wants to make it clear that there will be no alliance with the Congress in UP and across the country. Our party workers should not get diverted by the false news spread by the Congress.”

In another tweet, the BSP chief said: “Congress is free to field its candidates on all 80 Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh. The SP-BSP-RLD alliance is fully capable of defeating the BJP in the state. Congress should not spread the news that it is leaving seven seats for SP-BSP alliance.”

Soon after, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav also gave a cold shoulder to the Congress, tweeting, “In Uttar Pradesh, the SP-BSP-RLD alliance is capable of defeating the BJP. The Congress should not create any confusion.”

On Sunday, UP Congress chief Raj Babbar had announced that the party would not field its candidates from seven seats and leave them for Samajwadi Party-Bahujan Samaj Party-Rashtriya Lok Dal alliance which had left two seats for the Congress in the state.

Babbar said that the Congress would not field candidates from Mainpuri, Firozabad and Kannauj and from the seats to be contested by Mayawati, RLD leaders Ajit Singh and Jayant Chaudhary as well as SP chief Akhilesh Yadav. The SP is fielding its patron Mulayam Singh Yadav from Mainpuri.

The BSP is contesting 38 of the 80 seats in UP, SP on 37 and RLD on three.

The entry of Priyanka Gandhi Vadra in the UP’s realpolitik has made the SP and BSP jittery as any rise in Congress’ poll prospects will directly hurt their interest. 

Both SP and BSP have pursued strident caste-based identity politics in the state for the last three decades. The two parties created caste-based vote bank comprising Dalits, Muslims and section of OBCs, thus eating into political space earlier occupied by the Congress.

Priyanka is fiercely attacking the caste politics of the two parties, and is reminding voters how they were not only misled and taken for a ride by these parties in the last three decades.

The Congress pin-up leader is also telling people that caste politics immensely benefited the leaders of the two parties, leaving their voters high and dry. Priyanka’s barbs against the two parties is posing a serious threat to the poll arithmetic of the SP and the BSP.

In 2014, the BJP and its ally won 71 seats in UP with a vote share of 42.3 per cent. The combined vote share of the SP and BSP in 2014 was marginally less than that of the BJP — 41.8 per cent. The Congress was able to get only 7.5 per cent of the vote share.

With a rejuvenated SP-BSP fighting the polls unitedly, it is expected that their vote share will increase. Now that the Congress is going it alone with the charismatic Priyanka, the grand old party is likely to eat into the anti-BJP votes, especially Muslims and Dalits, making it easier for the BJP.