On Monday, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) clarified that its Supremo Mayawati is not going to hold any meetings with opposition leaders in the national capital today. Earlier there were reports that the former UP chief minister was scheduled to meet UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Congress chief Rahul Gandhi Today.

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“Mayawati Ji has no program or meetings scheduled in Delhi today, she will be in Lucknow,” senior BSP leader Satish Chandra Mishra was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.

The meeting was being seen as an effort to push for an anti-NDA bloc ahead of the Lok Sabha polls result on May 23. The two sides were brought together by Andhra Pradesh CM and Tlugu Desam Party (TDP) supremo N Chandrababu Naidu, who has recently held a flurry of meetings with opposition leaders to rally support for a grand alliance. On Saturday, Andhra CM had met Rahul Gandhi, Mayawati and her alliance partner Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav.

BSP Supremo, although had earlier on been a part of the opposition meetings, had decided to keep the Congress out of the gathbandhan in Uttar Pradesh, dealing a major blow to the grand old party’s prospects in the crucial state. But even when she attacked the Congress, she was careful of not taking on the Gandhis directly.

The development also comes just a day after exit polls for the 2019 election showed a thumping victory for the BJP. 

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