Lucknow: Announcing a game-changing alliance in Uttar Pradesh with Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, BSP supremo Mayawati on Saturday said she was ready to forgive and forget the infamous ‘guest house incident’ of 1995 during which she was held hostage by SP workers at the state guest house.
The incident, one of the ugliest in the political history of Uttar Pradesh, unfolded on June 2, 1995 when Mayawati, the protégé of BSP founder Kanshi Ram, pulled support from the Mulayam Singh Yadav government, reducing it to a minority. The BSP leader made the shocking announcement at a rally in Lucknow and proceeded to the UP State Guest House at Mirabai Marg.
As per an account of the subsequent events chronicled by author Ajay Bose in his book Behenji, Mayawati was cornered by Samajwadi Party workers at the guest house. Mayawati was staying in room no.1 of the guest house while other BSP MLAs were put up in other rooms. These MLAs reportedly fled the accommodation when Samajwadi Party leaders tried to force into supporting the government.
The SP leaders then started raining sexist and casteist threats and abuses at Mayawati, and also allegedly cut off the electricity and water supply to the guest house as well. As Mayawati found herself surrounded by a mob of angry SP men, BJP lawmaker Brahmdutt Dwivedi came to her rescue. It is said that after Dwivedi’s death, an indebted Mayawati never fielded a candidate against his widow.
According to Ajay Bose’s book, Samajwadi Party MLAs allegedly kidnapped five BSP lawmakers and forced them to sign papers of support. The situation was brought under control after direct intervention from the Governor’s Office, the central government and some BJP MLAs, including Dwivedi.
The ‘guest house incident’ scarred the nascent two-year-old alliance between Mulayam Singh Yadav and Kanshi Ram in 1995. It has taken 26 years for their heirs Akhilesh Yadav and Mayawati to bury the hatchet in the hope that this tie-up too would lead them to an electoral win.
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