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Mayawati fires Lucknow guesthouse incident salvo at Samajwadi Party
Her attack comes as SP chief Akhilesh Yadav visited Rae Bareli to unveil BSP founder Kanshiram’s statue
Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief and former chief minister Mayawati invoked the infamous 1995 state guesthouse incident on Sunday, over 27 years after it had occurred in Lucknow to caution her cadres against the Samajwadi Party’s attempts to weaken her party’s Dalit vote bank.
She referred to the incident as the SP chief Akhilesh Yadav visited Rae Bareli to unveil a statue of BSP founder Kanshiram there.
The move is being interpreted as a fresh effort by the state’s main opposition party to woo Bahujan Samaj Party’s Dalit vote bank.
The guesthouse incident had soured relations between the two parties though they briefly joined hands again in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections only to part ways soon after the polls.
The BSP had even withdrawn the 1995 case against SP top leadership then.
“The SP has made fresh efforts to cash in on Kanshiramji’s name though people are well aware of the party’s history of backstabbing and cheating Dalits, including Kanshiramji himself. The guesthouse incident is proof of that. It is because of the incident that the alliance between the two parties had come unstuck,” Mayawati said at a meeting of party cadres and coordinators in Lucknow.
Monday’s statue unveiling function has been organised by Samajwadi Party general secretary Swami Prasad Maurya, a former close aide of Mayawati, at his school Manyawar Kanshi Ram Mahavidyalaya in Rae Bareli’s Mahamaya Nagar. Kanshiram was the architect of the formidable SP-BSP alliance in the 1990s.
Mayawati, repeatedly emphasised that her Dalit vote bank was intact and described apprehensions to the contrary as “propaganda”.
Ahead of the 2022 U.P. assembly polls, several key BSP leaders had defected to the SP.
She pitched the BSP as the only party capable of stopping the BJP.
She also urged cadres to launch a campaign to woo urban voters ahead of the soon-to-be-announced civic polls.
Blaming the SP for the BJP’s rise, she said, “While the Dalit voter has stood solidly behind the BSP, Samajwadi Party voters have been shifting loyalties, one of the main reasons for the BJP’s resurgence in the state. That is why only the BSP is capable of stopping the BJP and the people have now realised as much.”
SILENCE ON ATIQ’S WIFE
The BSP will contest the civic polls on its own, the party announced. But the BSP chief didn’t clear the air on the candidature of mafioso Atiq Ahmad’s wife Shaista Parveen as BSP’s mayoral contender from Prayagraj.
In January, Shaista had joined the BSP and announced that she would be the party’s mayoral candidate. But after being named, along with her family members, in the February 24 murder of lawyer Umesh Pal in Prayagraj, Shaista has been absconding. The police have declared a reward of ₹25,000 on her arrest.
“Behenji will take a call (on Shaista) at the right time. If she is convicted, BSP will initiate action against her. As you know, Behenji has been very strict on crime and her rule is known for law and order. But till she (Shaista) is convicted, we cannot assume her to be guilty. We urge the police to nab the culprits quickly,” BSP lawmaker Uma Shankar Singh said after the meeting.
Mayawati urged her party leaders to ensure that only the right candidates who are working for the people’s welfare are given priority in ticket distribution.
