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At loggerheads for decades, Samajwadi Party founder Mulayam Singh Yadav and Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati shared the dais at a joint rally of the SP-BSP-RLD alliance in the SP citadel of Mainpuri on Friday, 19 April.
Speaking at the rally, the SP supremo welcomed Mayawati, urging his party workers to respect her and support her in the Lok Sabha elections. Campaigning for his candidature from Mainpuri, Mulayam said: “You have voted for me all these years and elected me from here. I request you to do this one last time, once again.”
Addressing the rally after Mulayam, Mayawati, campaigning for her once arch-rival, urged people to vote for Mulayam once again.
“A person who fakes being from the oppressed classes can never be a true leader of the people,” she said, hitting out at the Prime Minister.
Hitting out at the Congress, she said that the party was now touring across the country to urge the poor to vote for them. “Do not be influenced by them, vote only for the SP-BSP alliance,” she said.
Addressing the rally, SP Chief Akhilesh Yadav said change was in the air, hitting out at the BJP government at the centre. Appealing to the people to vote for his father and SP Supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav once again, Yadav said:
The SP patriarch, who is contesting the Lok Sabha elections from the party bastion of Mainpuri, was conspicuous by his absence at the three joint rallies held earlier in Deoband, Badaun and Agra due to his aversion to his party’s alliance with the BSP.
Reports suggest that Mulayam was not too keen on attending Friday’s rally as well, but was cajoled by his son and SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, who has confirmed the SP founder’s presence at the Mainpuri rally.
SP district unit president of Mainpuri, Khuman Singh Yadav said Akhilesh along with Mayawati and RLD chief Ajit Singh will address the rally in Mulayam’s presence.
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Published: 18 Apr 2019,08:17 PM IST