![[File] Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati along with the top Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi | PTI](https://img.theweek.in/content/dam/week/news/india/images/2018/10/5/rahul-gandhi-sonia-mayawati-pti.jpg "[File] Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati along with the top Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi | PTI")
The Congress leadership of Haryana held a meeting with BSP supremo Mayawati in the national capital, setting off speculation of a possible alliance between the two parties for the upcoming assembly elections in the state.
Former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and newly appointed PCC chief Kumari Selja held a closed door meeting with Mayawati on Sunday night. The development is significant as it comes in the backdrop of Mayawati having walked out of a pre-poll alliance with Jannayak Janata Party (JJP). The JJP broke off from the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) as a result of the power tussle within the Chautala clan. It is led by Dushyant Chautala, grandson of Om Prakash Chautala.
The BSP ended its alliance with the JJP since it was unhappy with the offer made by Dushyant Chautala's party. The JJP had offered 40 seats to the BSP to contest in the assembly polls.
The meeting between the Congress leaders and Mayawati has led to talk of a possible tie-up between the Congress and the BSP for the elections to the 90-member assembly.
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The break-up between the BSP and the JJP has come as a glimmer of hope for the Congress, which has only come out of a deep crisis brought about by the intense factionalism in the state unit. A semblance of peace has been achieved with the replacement of Ashok Tanwar as PCC chief and appointment of Hooda as Congress Legislature Party leader and also head of the party's campaign committee for the coming elections.
Mayawati had announced to break up with the JJP a few days back on Twitter, merely stating, “The party high command has decided to go it alone with all its strength and contest on all the seats.”
It will not be easy for the Congress to get an alliance with the BSP in place. While the party is keen to build a Jat-Jatav tie-up for the coming elections, it is learnt that Mayawati is not too keen on an alliance with the national party. Also, the Congress' efforts to have a pre-poll alliance with the BSP for the Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh elections in 2018 had come to a naught.
