Our coalition will vote for Congress in Amethi, Raebareli to defeat BJP: Mayawati

New Delhi, May 05: A day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi that the Samajwadi Party(SP) and Congress were deceiving Mayawati Bahujan Samaj Party chief today lent support to the Congress in Amethi and Rae Bareli - strongholds of the Gandhi family.

In a statement, Mayawati said: "The Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress are alike. We have not done any coalition with the Congress but to defeat the BJP, our coalition will vote for the Congress in Amethi and Rae Bareli.

Mayawati said the decision to not field a joint BSP-SP candidate from these constituencies was a deliberate attempt to destabilise the BJP vote share.

"Keeping in mind that the BJP does not benefit from these constituencies, the alliance decided to leave the two seats for the Congress. I am hopeful that every vote in favour of our alliance will go to the Congress MPs (in these seats)," she further said.

Addressing a rally on Saturday, PM Modi had alleged that the Samajwadi Party(SP) and Congress were deceiving Mayawati on the pretext of making her the PM, and that she had understood their "big game". Questioning the SP's "silence" on the Congress, he hinted at Priyanka Gandhi Vadra's address to SP workers in Rae Bareli as a sign of the understanding between the two parties.

Uttar Pradesh, which sends 80 MPs to the Lok Sabha, plays a significant role in deciding who will form the next government at the Centre.