Mayawati & Mulayam shake hands after 24 years, call PM Modi ‘fake OBC’

“BJP’s jumlas won’t work in this election. Not even one fourth of work has been done on ground as promised by Narendra Modi. They have just misled the people,” she said.

Mainpuri: Samajwadi Party patron Mulayam Singh Yadav, his son and party President Akhilesh Yadav and Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati wave at the crowd during their joint election campaign rally in Mainpuri, Friday, April 19, 2019. (Twitter/PTI Photo) (PTI4_19_2019_000039B)

Manipuri (UP Lok Sabha elections 2019): Bitter rivals for 24 years, BSP supremo Mayawati and Samajwadi Party (SP) patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav on Friday shared the stage here. The BSP chief, along her SP and RLD counterparts Akhilesh Yadav and Ajit Singh, are seeking votes for the senior Yadav at a joint rally. The SP and BSP have struck an alliance for the Lok Sabha elections. SP patriarch Mulayam is contesting from Mainpuri, which he had won along with Azamgarh in 2014. Welcoming Mayawati into the grand alliance fold and thanking her for campaigning for him, Mulayam said, “I am happy Mayawati is here with us today. I have lot of respect for her, she has extended support to us at various junctures.” Mulayam also asked his supporters at poll rally to always respect Mayawati. Heaping praise on Mulayalam, Mayawati said the SP patriarch has been instrumental in corralling people of all castes and communities in the state. She came down heavily on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and questioned  his Other Backward Class (OBC) category credentials. "PM Narendra Modi is a nakli sevak." She said people of Uttar Pradesh should be able to distinguish between who is real and who is fake. “BJP’s jumlas won’t work in this election. Not even one fourth of work has been done on ground as promised by Narendra Modi. They have just misled the people,” she said. Mayawati urged voters to send Mulayam Singh Yadav again to the Lok Sabha. In her speech, she also lauded Akhilesh Yadav's leadership skills. Mayawati attacked the Congress and warned voters of the erstwhile party's "deceitful intentions." Burying the hatchet, Mayawati had said in January that she had “forgotten the Lucknow guesthouse incident in the larger interest of the country”. She had also said while announcing the BSP-SP alliance a son shouldn’t be judged on the basis of the wrongs committed by his father. Mayawati had registered a case with Lucknow police on June 2, 1995, accusing SP members of physically attacking her with criminal intentions in the guesthouse when she withdrew support to the “anti-Dalit” Mulayam regime. Since then, Mayawati has made no bones about her acrimony  for Mulayam.