'You Have a Lot to Learn from Our Party': Mayawati's 'Advice' to SP Workers

Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati on Saturday said workers of her ally Samajwadi Party had a “lot to learn from the BSP”. Mayawati was reportedly upset after workers of the Akhilesh Yadav-led party raised slogans during her speech at a campaign rally in UP’s Firozabad.

“The way you people shout in the middle of a speech... I think you should learn something from the Bahujan Samaj Party workers. The Samajwadi workers have a lot to learn,” she said.

The former UP chief minister has stitched together an alliance with the SP and Ajit Singh’s Rashtriya Lok Dal for the national elections to halt the BJP juggernaut. The joint rally was held a day after a historic event saw the coming together of the BSP chief and her once arch-rival Mulayam Singh Yadav in Mainpuri.

Mayawati, who mentioned the guesthouse incident during her speech to canvass for Yadav, praised him for being the “real leader of backwards unlike Prime Minister Narendra Modi”. The SP patriarch, in turn, asked his workers to respect the BSP chief, saying she had stood by them at all times.

The alliance has often come under attack for being a pact of convenience, with PM Modi terming the friendship of SP and BSP ‘farzi’ (fake) and saying that the alliance will fall apart the day Lok Sabha election results are announced.

"You all remember the friendship that was struck during the Assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh which came to an end with the announcement of results and turned into rivalry,” he said in Etah referring to the understanding in 2017 between the Congress and the Samajwadi Party. “Now another friendship has emerged which is set to expire on May 23. On that day, the aunt and nephew combo will mark the beginning of part 2 of their rivalry,” he added.