Is Mayawati's BSP heading for yet another split in Uttar Pradesh?

With seven party legislators virtually switching loyalty to the Samajwadi Party (SP) and several senior leaders raising a banner of revolt against party supremo Mayawati, the Bahujan Samaj Party appears to be headed for yet another split in Uttar Pradesh.

Though Mayawati suspended the seven rebel MLAs, there were reports that some more party lawmakers could jump the ship in the days to come.

BSP had won 19 seats in 2017 UP Assembly polls. While it lost an earlier bypoll at a seat vacated by its sitting MLA after the latter was elected to the Lok Sabha, the loss of seven lawmakers has further reduced its strength to only 11.

If the claims by the SP had any substance then this tally could come down further in the days to come.

''Several senior BSP leaders, especially Muslims, are in touch with us and will leave the party in the very near future,'' claimed a senior SP leader here.

Congress was also trying to woo the 'Dalit' and Muslim leaders of the BSP with a promise of ''giving them due honour'' should they decide to join the grand old party.

Although the BSP, which had split on several occasions in the past since it was founded in 1984, the ongoing tussle within the party assumed added significance as it could threaten the electoral prospects of the party in the politically crucial state of UP, where Assembly elections were due in less than one and half year time.

Barely ten years after its formation the BSP had suffered its first split, when Raj Bahadur, one of the founding members of the party, had parted ways with 20 legislators and formed a new outfit.

BSP experienced another split in 2003 when around a dozen party MLAs defected to the SP and helped the latter form government in the state.

Mayawati may be claiming that everything was well within the party, sources said that there was resentment among the leaders and workers following her declaration that she could support the BJP to teach the SP a lesson.

With the Bhim Army, a 'Dalit' outfit, going all out to expand its base among Mayawati's core vote bank, the desertions in the BSP could spoil the BSP supremo's dreams to come back to power in the next Assembly polls.