New Delhi: Mayawati, who has been on the warpath against the Congress, today accused the party of being in league with the BJP to take down the alliance in Uttar Pradesh. As evidence, she cited Congress chief Rahul Gandhi's hug to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in parliament.
"I want to ask the Congress - isn't Rahul Gandhi of mature years? Why then was he hugging Modi in parliament? Both parties are about to be ousted and so they are extremely upset," the chief of Bahujan Samaj Party said.
She also accused the Congress of deliberately playing spoiler in Uttar Pradesh so the BJP would emerge the winner.
"Due to their casteist mentality, the Congress is out to help the BJP win by fielding their own candidates... Congress leaders are openly saying it doesn't matter if the BJP wins, the SP-BSP combine should not win," she added.
Mayawati, who had been upset over the failure of alliance talks ahead of last year's assembly elections in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, had left the Congress out of her alliance with Samajwadi chief Akhilesh Yadav in Uttar Pradesh.
But Congress chief Rahul Gandhi had refused to stay out and insisted on contesting all the seats in the politically crucial state.
Earlier this week, Mayawati threatened to pull out support to Kamal Nath's government, which has a wafer thin majority in Madhya Pradesh.
The provocation was a change of allegiance by alliance candidate Lokendra Singh Rajput. Mr Rajput, who was contesting on an alliance ticket from Guna against Jyotiraditya Scindia, joined the Congress.
In a tweet on Monday morning, Mayawati said the Congress was no less than the BJP in misusing official machinery. "The BSP candidate was intimidated and threatened and forced to drop out but the BSP will give a reply by contesting under its own symbol and will also consider whether to continue its support to the state Congress government," Mayawati tweeted.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)