Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati on Tuesday issued a subtle warning to her ally, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, saying political compulsions had forced her to go solo in the assembly by-elections.

Addressing reporters, Mayawati said, “The core base of Yadavs did not vote for the Samajwadi Party even in the party’s strongholds. We thus need to think about the situation. We feel sorry for the loss of strong SP candidates but want to ask that if the SP did not get even its core votes, how did it transfer votes to BSP?”

The move comes a day after the party broke decades-old tradition and decided to contest bypolls on the assembly seats of Uttar Pradesh that were vacated after its MLAs got elected to the Lok Sabha. The decision was reportedly taken in the review meeting called by the BSP chief in Delhi on Monday.