Maya keeps promise to Akhilesh, withdraws ‘guest house’ case against Mulayam
LUCKNOW: Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati has withdrawn the infamous guest house case of June 2, 1995, against Samajwadi Party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav, thus putting the 25-year-old rift between the two regional satraps to rest.
According to informed sources, the BSP chief had withdrawn the case in February this year when both the regional parties had struck an alliance ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
It is believed that Mayawati withdrew the case as a goodwill gesture on the request of SP chief Akhilesh Yadav. However, it was not made public then.
However, even on Friday, when questioned on the withdrawal of the case, senior BSP and SP leaders refrained from making any comment on the issue.
BSP national general secretary SC Mishra confirmed that his party chief had withdrawn the case lodged against the then chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav. Mishra, however, did not give details of the matter.
During the 2019 Lok Sabha election campaign, Mayawati had addressed a rally with the SP patriarch in Mainpuri in a show of bonhomie between the two parties. She had even called upon party workers to forget the guesthouse episode.
The sources claimed that Mayawati had then assured Akhilesh that she would withdraw the case against Mulayam as Akhilesh had urged her to do so.
After the defeat in the Lok Sabha election, she broke away dissolving the alliance with SP but fulfilled the promise made to Akhilesh, said a BSP leader seeking anonymity.
Post-2019 poll results, Mayawati had shifted the blame for the poor performance of the alliance to Akhilesh Yadav saying he could not get his vote bank transferred to her candidates.
While BSP had won 10 of 38 seats it had contested, SP failed to increase its tally of five while contesting on 37 of 80 UP seats as per the alliance formula. Moreover, SP failed to secure its strongholds and family bastions in Baduan, Kannauj and Ferozabad.
Finally, on June 23, the BSP chief announced the end of the alliance with the SP. Akhilesh Yadav had also launched a counter-attack on the BSP, blaming Mayawati for the defeat. He said though the SP transferred its vote, BSP failed to do the same.
BSP faced a crushing defeat in the recently concluded bypolls to 11 assembly seats as it failed to open its account.
To recall the guesthouse incident, after the formation of the BSP-SP government post the 1993 assembly elections, differences started cropping up among the alliance partners in less than two years. BJP leaders met Mayawati and offered her the CM’s post if the BSP joined hands with their party. On June 2, 1995, Mayawati called a meeting of her party MLAs at the Meerabai guesthouse in Lucknow. Samajwadi Party leaders and workers too reached the guesthouse and allegedly attacked her.
Mayawati and some BSP MLAs locked themselves in a room of the guest house. Later, she was rescued by BJP leaders. In a case registered at the local police station, Mayawati alleged that Mulayam Singh Yadav and other SP leaders had wanted to kill her.
Later, the then governor sacked Mulayam Singh Yadav’s government and invited Mayawati to form the government.