Uttar Pradesh chief minister and Bahujan Samaj Party leader Mayawati on Sunday fuelled fresh speculation about the possibility of her party preparing to challenge the Congress for its pro-poor constituency.

The BSP's decision on this issue will have a major bearing on the outcome of the assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Delhi, all states where the BJP would be engaged in a direct contest with the Congress.

The BJP and BSP are running the coalition government in Uttar Pradesh. Of late, the BJP has had limited success in assembly elections with the thumping majority in Gujarat being the only bright spot in an otherwise bleak scenario.

Mayawati, whose last minute tour of Gujarat during the last assembly poll helped the BJP win over a large chunk of the predominantly pro-Congress Dalit voters, launched her party's campaign for the forthcoming Delhi elections at a moderate rally in Delhi's Ramlila ground.

She appealed to the poor and the downtrodden masses of the Union capital to observe a fast on the polling day to cut down on poll expenses of their party's largely hard-pressed candidates.

Claiming that both the Mulayam Singh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party and the Sonia Gandhi-led Congress were loosing their support base in Uttar Pradesh, Mayawati said Congress president Sonia Gandhi might seek a safe seat in south India during the next Lok Sabha polls.

She sought to silence critics who accuse her of being anti-Thakur and anti-Muslim by pointing to the victory of her Thakur candidate in Gauriganj and the victory of her Muslim candidate in Bareilly.

The timing of the rally and the choice of venue might indicate that it was an effort to challenge Congress president Sonia Gandhi.

Only last week, the latter had addressed a rally in Delhi and coined a pro-poor slogan Congress ka haath gharib ke saath (The Congress is with the poor).

The Congress is perceived to be on the comeback trail with the support of the poor and the weaker sections of society who are believed to be disillusioned with the BJP, and the BSP appears to be the only party capable of upsetting the Congress applecart.