Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati has said that an alliance with Akhilesh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections was on the cards. “There is some time for the elections. Once the elections are near and seat adjustment has been figured out, you will get to know,” Mayawati told NDTV in an interview published on Monday.

“Communal forces in the Bharatiya Janata Party and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh will not like it when secular forces unite,” Mayawati added. She was in Karnataka to campaign for former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda’s Janata Dal (Secular) party for the May 12 Assembly elections.

The BSP chief also said that her party would never be pressured by national parties like the BJP and the Congress.

The Lok Sabha elections are due in April or May 2019. The Bahujan Samaj Party had extended support to Samajwadi Party candidates in bye-elections to the Gorakhpur and Phulpur Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh in March, leading to the BJP’s defeat.