Overcoming more than two decades of political and personal acrimony, Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati on Friday sought votes for Samajwadi Party patron Mulayam Singh Yadav in his turf Mainpuri, hailing him as the “real and true leader” of the backward classes.
As the two former Chief Ministers and sworn rivals shared the stage at a SP-BSP rally, there was plenty of bonhomie on display and shared words of praise, marking a remarkable shift in Uttar Pradesh politics.
SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, who was also on stage, said it was a “historic” moment that Ms. Mayawati was seeking votes for his father.
Mr. Mulayam Singh, who spoke first, appealed to the mammoth crowd at the Christian College grounds to “honour” Ms. Mayawati and said he would “never forget” her gesture of coming to campaign for him.
Ms. Mayawati justified the SP-BSP alliance. She said she was campaigning for the SP founder despite the June 2, 1995 guesthouse incident, in which she was allegedly attacked by SP legislators, as “hard decisions” needed to be taken sometimes in the interest of the people, the nation and the party’s movement, given the present situation.
The SP-BSP coalition government came to an end after the infamous incident, which also marked the souring of the relationship between Ms. Mayawati and the SP top leadership.
But in a sharp contrast to that era, on Friday, Ms. Mayawati pitched for Mr. Mulayam Singh’s cycle symbol and hailed him as a “real and true OBC” leader, unlike Prime Minister Narendra Modi whom she dubbed a “fake and false” OBC [leader].
While appreciating Mr. Singh for connecting all communities, especially the OBCs in large numbers, to his party, she said “even today the OBCs consider Shri Mulayam Singh Yadav as their real and true leader.”
The SP patron reciprocated the sentiment and asked an SP leader, who had bent to touch his feet, to accord the same respect to Ms. Mayawati who was seated beside him.
‘Fake OBC’
“A fake person cannot work for the backward communities with full honesty and commitment,” she said, adding that it was a “result of such a fake OBC person coming to power that lakhs of posts meant for Dalits and OBCs were lying vacant.”
Ms. Mayawati also appealed to the voters to not fall for the inducements and promises made by the BJP and the Congress, and especially targeted the NYAY or minimum income scheme. She said a little financial help won’t do them good and promised that if the BSP came to power, she would create means for providing them stable government and non-government sector jobs.
Mr. Singh has won the Mainpuri seat four times — in 1996, 2004, 2009 and 2014. Since 2004, in five elections won by the SP here, including two bypolls, the main opponent has come from the Shakya (OBC) caste. And this time too the BJP has picked a Shakya — Prem Singh Shakya — to take on the Yadav patriarch.
In the 2014 bypoll, after Mulayam Singh decided to retain Azamgarh, his grand-nephew Tej Pratap defeated Prem Singh by a margin of 3.30 lakh.
Mr. Shakya told The Hindu that Mr. Singh’s “era was over” and that he would not only give him a tough fight but also win.
In his speech, Mr. Mulayam Singh asked the crowd to ensure his victory with a bigger margin, as he sought votes “one last time.”
