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Akhilesh thanks Maya for withdrawing case against Mulayam
Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav on Friday expressed gratitude towards his Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) counterpart Mayawati for withdrawing SP patron Mulayam
Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav on Friday expressed gratitude towards his Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) counterpart Mayawati for withdrawing SP patron Mulayam Singh Yadav’s name from the infamous guest house case of June 1995.
“We welcome it. I express my gratitude,” Akhilesh Yadav said at a press conference that he held on the third anniversary of demonetisation.
When asked about the bitterness following Mayawati ending the alliance with the party after the Lok Sabha polls, Akhilesh said: “There never was any bitterness.”
Reports surfaced on Thursday, and were subsequently confirmed by BSP national general secretary SC Mishra, that Mayawati had withdrawn the two-decade-old case against Mulayam. The infamous guest house incident of 1995 had soured relations between the two parties and turned them into sworn rivals on Uttar Pradesh’s political stage before they briefly joined hands for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
At Friday’s press conference, Akhilesh indicated that he was aware of Mayawati’s move. Till Thursday night, the Samajwadi Party had said that it was not aware of the developments.
The proposal for withdrawal of the case was mooted when Akhilesh and Mayawati frequently communicated with each other after sewing up a pre-poll alliance on January 12 ahead of the Lok Sabha polls. A senior BSP leader on Thursday said Akhilesh Yadav had urged Mayawati to withdraw the case lodged against his father in connection with the June 2, 1995 incident.
Mulayam and Mayawati had shared the stage when the BSP campaigned for the SP founder during the parliamentary polls in Mainpuri last year. Both had praised each other at the time.
However, in June, Mayawati announced she was ending the alliance with the SP following the alliance’s poor show in the Lok Sabha polls.
Before this, the SP and the BSP had allied in the 1993 assembly elections, less than a year after demolition of the Babri Masjid in 1992.
The SP chief Mulayam and then BSP chief Kanshi Ram had formed the alliance to contest the 1993 assembly election against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
The BSP-SP alliance won 176 of 425 seats (at that time Uttarakhand was part of UP) and formed a government with Congress support. Mulayam became the chief minister.
But differences started cropping up afterwards. In this backdrop, BJP leaders met Mayawati and offered her the chief minister’s post if the BSP joined hands with their party. On June 2, 1995, Mayawati had called a meeting of her party MLAs at the Meerabai guesthouse in Lucknow. SP leaders and workers reached the guest house and allegedly attacked it that day.
