Mayawati News: Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati has finally revealed why she fell out with the Samajwadi Party and Akhilesh Yadav after the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. The BSP president said that after the 2019 election, Akhilesh Yadav stopped taking calls from BSP leaders. Because of this, she did not continue the alliance with the SP. She said she wanted to protect the party's honour.
The BSP, which is preparing for the upcoming UP by-elections, has printed a 59-page booklet. The BSP's booklet attempts to familiarise party workers and supporters with the party's ideology and inform them of its strategy. This booklet is being distributed among the workers to inform them of the reasons behind important decisions taken by Mayawati in the last few years. The booklet also aims to portray Mayawati and the BSP as the biggest well-wishers of Dalits. With repeated attacks on the Congress over its reservation policy, Mayawati is trying to position herself as a messiah for "backward castes".
'Akhilesh Yadav stopped Taking Calls'
In the booklet, Mayawati has claimed that in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the BSP got 10 and the SP got 5 seats, due to which Akhilesh Yadav not only stopped maintaining relations with the BSP but also stopped taking calls from senior BSP leaders. In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, Akhilesh Yadav's Samajwadi Party maintained its tally of 5 seats from 2014, but was the biggest loser among the larger parties, having lost over 4% of the vote share.
Mayawati's BSP, meanwhile, emerged as the biggest winner bagging 10 seats in UP, bouncing back strongly after a no-show in the previous polls. Mayawati said that in order to uphold the party's self-respect, she had decided to break the alliance with the SP.
Mayawati On 1995 Guesthouse Incident
In the booklet, Mayawati also expressed grief over the 1995 guesthouse incident. In the booklet, she also clarified why she had formed an alliance with the Samajwadi Party despite the guesthouse incident. She said that to stop the BJP in UP, Akhilesh Yadav had asked her party to forget the old mistakes and give him another chance. She asked her supporters to be wary of the SP's PDA.
When she formed the alliance with the SP in 2018, Mayawati said she was ready to “rise above” the infamous guesthouse incident.
The 1995 guesthouse incident refers to the attack on Mayawati and BSP leaders at a guesthouse in Lucknow. In the 1993 UP Assembly elections, Mulayam Singh Yadav and BSP's founder Kanshi Ram came together to form the government with 176 seats between them. However, two years later, Mayawati withdrew her support to the Mulayam Singh Government, angering SP supporters. This sparked a massive hunt to find and attack Mayawati and other BSP leaders at the guesthouse during a meeting.
Mayawati was shielded by BJP leader Brahm Dutt Dwivedi and taken out of her suite to safety.
Mayawati's Dalit Reservation Focus
After the results of the 2024 elections, Mayawati is spooked by the INDIA bloc's inroads into the BSP's vote bank and is trying to save her core voters. Last month, too, she raised the guesthouse incident to question the Congress on its alliance with the SP.
Mayawati also slammed Rahul Gandhi over his comments on reservation during his US visit. The BSP has been repeatedly reaching out to Dalits and "backward castes" to tell them that other parties work for their votes, while Mayawati raises her voice in their interests.
(With inputs from Viresh Pandey)