Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) president Mayawati, on Sunday, slammed Congress MP, Rahul Gandhi, a day after he said that the BSP chief "did not respond" to the party's alliance offer in Uttar Pradesh during elections."The Congress needs to worry about itself first," she said at a press conference and added that the remarks were an attempt to "malign" her party."The Congress should set its own house in order instead of taking potshots at BSP," she pointed out.Insisting what Gandhi said is 'absolutely false', Mayawati said the loss of Uttar Pardesh elections should be the focus now rather than 'these petty things'."The Congress must think 100 times before making such comments. They have been unable to win from the BJP but just keep taking targeting BSP because of its casteist mentality. Congress has done nothing even in power and even out of power," she added.Mayawati said that even Rajiv Gandhi, former Prime Minister and the late father of Rahul Gandhi, had tried to defame her Bahujan Samaj Party.
On Saturday, Rahul Gandhi had said that the Congress had offered alliance to Mayawati and even offered to make her the chief ministerial candidate, but 'she did not even talk to us'.Lashing out at the BSP chief, Rahul alleged that Mayawati gave a clear passage to the ruling BJP in the state because of 'the CBI, the ED and Pegasus'.She further said, "Now even Priyanka Gandhi is doing the same by saying that I am afraid of ED and other probe agencies. All of this are not true. They should know that we have fought and won all these issues in the Supreme Court."The Congress and the BSP were among the parties that fared the worst in the Uttar Pradesh polls. While Mayawati's party managed to win just one seat, the Congress despite Priyanka Gandhi Vadra leading the campaign got just two of 403 seats in the crucial state.The remarks -- signifying a rift between the two leaders can also be worrying amid the opposition's attempts to unify against the BJP ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.