The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) will not go with the ruling Samajwadi Party (SP) in the Assembly polls due in 2017. Sources close to Bahujan Samaj Party chief and Dalit icon Mayawati rejected all such speculation as implausible - at least, at this stage. Uttar Pradesh (UP) Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav had sparked off the speculation of a possible Bihar-like grand alliance in the 2017 state Assembly polls with BSP as one of the possible partners. Mayawati, however, was more interested in allying with a party or parties, which would not be in a position to share the chief ministerial tenure with her. This thinking, has by default excluded both the SP and the BJP from being considered as allies of the BSP.

Top BSP sources told Mail Today that the State Guest House incident on June 2, 1995, allegedly planned by arch-rival and SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav after the BSP withdrew support from him as the chief minister of UP, still weighed a lot with the Dalit leader.

Meanwhile, BSP sources said the Congress was more interested in the alliance. "Congress wants to stitch up a SP-BSP alliance as that will give the beleaguered party yet another chance after the Bihar experiment, where it bagged a relatively handsome number of 27 seats, to ride on the back of a winning caste combination and stall the BJP," said a senior BSP leader. The BSP, which had last came to power in the state between 2007-2012, is confident of a comeback this time, owing to anti-incumbency against the present Akhilesh Yadav dispensation. Leaders also claimed that general public sentiment was favourable towards the BSP as the "law and order situation in UP is grim".

Political observers also said that if a game of alliance erupts in the state, the BJP could find itself in a soup. They also added that Ajit Singh's Rasthtriya Lok Dal (RLD) and the Congress could become hot cakes in a tug of war between the BSP and the SP.

"The core of this conflict will be the Muslim voters. BSP plus Congress and RLD is a good combination in terms of vote percentage and a is formidable social combination if their respective caste-base is considered. Muslims, on the other hand, seem unhappy with the SP over the spate of communal violence across the state. Congress and RLD will have to weigh if the SP or the BSP will attract more of this votebank," said Sajjan Kumar, a political science researcher at JNU doing extensive field work in Muzaffarnagar, which was hit by riots in 2013.

Going by the vote share of these parties in the 2012 Assembly elections, Congress-BSP-RLD combination stands at 39.89 per cent, while Congress-SP-RLD combination is 43.11per cent.