Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati on Tuesday threatened to reconsider her party’s support to the Kamal Nath-led government in Madhya Pradesh a day after her party candidate from the Guna Lok Sabha seat joined the Congress, PTI reported. The BSP candidate – Lokendra Singh Rajput – joined the Congress on Monday evening and extended his support to Guna’s incumbent MP and Congress candidate Jyotiraditya Scindia.

Mayawati claimed that Rajput had been intimidated. “The Congress is no less than the BJP when it comes to misusing state machinery,” she tweeted. “The candidate might have been threatened and coerced to withdraw his nomination but the BSP will give a reply by contesting the elections using its symbol, and it will also rethink its decision to support the Congress government.”

The Congress has 114 legislators in Madhya Pradesh’s 230-member Assembly while the BSP has two. The BJP has 109 MLAs, the Samajwadi Party one and there are four independent legislators. The SP and independents support the Congress government.

Mayawati alleged that the Congress has been saying at Uttar Pradesh campaigns that it is better the BJP wins seats rather than the SP-BSP and Rashtriya Lok Dal alliance. She said this had revealed the Congress’ casteist, parochial and duplicitous character. The Congress is contesting on its own in Uttar Pradesh.

The BSP chief has criticised the Congress as much as the BJP during the election campaign and called them “birds of the same feather”.When the two parties released their manifestos she said there was no difference between their poll promises. She had even endorsed the saffron party’s claim that the Congress’s minimum income guarantee scheme for poor people was a bluff. In March, she had rejected the Rahul Gandhi-led party’s offer to leave seven seats vacant for the SP-BSP-RLD alliance.