Samajwadi Party President Akhilesh Yadav said the Congress was kept out of the alliance with Bahujan Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh to correct the “poll arithmetic” in order to defeat the Bharatiya Janata Party, PTI reported on Tuesday.

“If you take out the number of seats in Uttar Pradesh, you will notice that the BJP government doesn’t have the majority,” the former chief minister said. “The BJP keeps talking about social engineering. So, I also decided to correct my poll arithmetic and did it through this alliance.”

Yadav and BSP chief Mayawati on January 12 had announced that their parties would together contest the Lok Sabha elections in the state. Mayawati confirmed that both parties would contest from 38 constituencies each and leave two seats for the Congress. Amethi and Rae Bareli are held by Congress President Rahul Gandhi and United Progressive Alliance chief Sonia Gandhi.

The Congress, which later said it would contest all the 80 Lok Sabha seats in the state on its own, had claimed the BSP-SP alliance was exactly what the BJP initially wanted. The BJP wanted the secular parties in the state to remain divided in order to split their votes, said the party.

Yadav claimed the SP had lost the 2017 Assembly elections, fought with the Congress, due to incorrect poll arithmetic. “So, I decided to correct the arithmetic by taking along Bahujan Samaj Party and Rashtriya Lok Dal and left two seats for the Congress,” he said. “In order to correct the arithmetic of Uttar Pradesh and defeat BJP, it [SP-BSP alliance] has been done. Should we lose seats [to BJP] just to pacify others?”

Yadav refused to comment on if the Samajwadi Party would be open to working with the Congress after the elections. “We will answer it after the elections,” he said. “But I can say this much that the country wants a new prime minister and it will have one after the polls.”

Yadav said the BSP-SP alliance would further strengthen Opposition unity in Uttar Pradesh. “Our relationship with the Congress has always been good,” he said. “The main issue is how to defeat the BJP and I have worked towards that arithmetic”.

Although Yadav on Monday had ruled himself out for the post of prime minister, he said it would be good if the next leader came from his state “because there is a notion that those who want to become the PM fight from Uttar Pradesh” or their party increases its tally from the state.

Yadav, along with several Opposition leaders, had participated in West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s United India rally in Kolkata on January 19.