At loggerheads for decades, Samajwadi Party founder Mulayam Singh Yadav and Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati shared the dais at a joint rally of the SP-BSP-RLD alliance in the SP citadel of Mainpuri on Friday, 19 April.
Speaking at the rally, the SP supremo welcomed Mayawati, urging his party workers to respect her and support her in the Lok Sabha elections. Campaigning for his candidature from Mainpuri, Mulayam said: “You have voted for me all these years and elected me from here. I request you to do this one last time, once again.”
Addressing the rally after Mulayam, Mayawati, campaigning for her once arch-rival, urged people to vote for Mulayam once again.
“People here respect Mulayam as their true leader. He is not like Narendra Modi, who claims to be from the backward classes. Mulayam is genuinely a leader of the oppressed.”
“A person who fakes being from the oppressed classes can never be a true leader of the people,” she said, hitting out at the Prime Minister.
Hitting out at the Congress, she said that the party was now touring across the country to urge the poor to vote for them. “Do not be influenced by them, vote only for the SP-BSP alliance,” she said.
Mulayam and Mayawati have been bitter rivals since 1995 when SP cadres allegedly attacked the state guest house where the BSP chief had been camping with her supporters.
‘No One Can Stop Change’: Akhilesh Yadav
Addressing the rally, SP Chief Akhilesh Yadav said change was in the air, hitting out at the BJP government at the centre. Appealing to the people to vote for his father and SP Supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav once again, Yadav said:
“We brought Delhi to you, now help us reach Delhi.”
Mulayam Cajoled By Son Akhilesh To Attend Rally
The SP patriarch, who is contesting the Lok Sabha elections from the party bastion of Mainpuri, was conspicuous by his absence at the three joint rallies held earlier in Deoband, Badaun and Agra due to his aversion to his party’s alliance with the BSP.
Reports suggest that Mulayam was not too keen on attending Friday’s rally as well, but was cajoled by his son and SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, who has confirmed the SP founder’s presence at the Mainpuri rally.
Mayawati has already asked workers of both the BSP and the SP to shun their differences and work for the victory of the alliance in the state.
SP district unit president of Mainpuri, Khuman Singh Yadav said Akhilesh along with Mayawati and RLD chief Ajit Singh will address the rally in Mulayam’s presence.
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)