Alleging that the ruling Samajwadi Party and BJP were hand in glove and “conspiring” to disturb communal harmony ahead of the Assembly polls to gain political mileage, BSP chief Mayawati said on Sunday that the protest marches planned by the two parties over the alleged exodus of Hindus from Kairana town should not be granted permission.

“Several sequence of events prove that BJP and SP are together working against BSP, and they are conspiring to orchestrate Hindu-Muslim riots to affect the elections,” Mayawati, said in a statement after a meeting with party coordinators, district presidents, MLAs, candidates for 2017 polls and other party office-bearers at BSP headquarters in Lucknow. She added that these were nothing but tactics adopted by the two parties to damage BSP.

Mayawati alleged that the BJP is trying to give communal colour to the alleged migration of Hindu families from Kairana, but the ruling SP’s “negligence” and “indifference” towards the issue show their “tacit understanding”. She claimed that the marches planned by both parties over the issue are also part of their “understanding”.