Mayawati fumes as BSP candidate joins Congress

A day after Mahagathbandhan candidate for Guna Lok Sabha constituency in Madhya Pradesh Lokendra Singh Rajput joined the Congress in support of sitting MP Jyotiraditya Scindia, a furious BSP supremo Mayawati warned of withdrawing support to Kamal Nath government.

Taking to Twitter to show her angst, Mayawati alleged, the BSP candidate was intimidated and forced to drop out but the BSP will give a reply by contesting under its own symbol and shall also consider whether to continue its support to the state Congress government.

Het tweet came in reply to the social media visuals by Congress in which Rajput, wearing a garland, was with Scindia who tweeted, "Young candidate Lokendra Singh, by joining the Congress, has given us his support. We welcome him to the Congress family." Guna is going to vote in the sixth phase on May 12.

"The Congress is not behind of BJP in misusing the government machinery. It has intimidated the BSP candidate from Guna in MP to withdraw. But, the BSP would reply by contesting the elections on its own symbol and also reconsider continuation of support to the Congress government," she tweeted.

In case, Mayawati chooses to convert her threat into reality, the Congress government in state could find itself on a sticky wicket. In the recent assembly polls, the party emerged the single largest with 114 seats in 230-member House while the BJP, despite having better polling percentage had won 109 seats. To fill up the shortfall, Kamal Nath had got support of two BSP MLAs and one from SP, besides four Independents.