24 years on, Mayawati seeks votes for Mulayam, shares stage in Mainpuri

Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati on Friday sought votes for Samajwadi Party (SP) patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav, as the leaders shared the stage at a rally here for the first time after the infamous Lucknow guest house episode.

The leaders were seen on the same stage at a joint election rally organised by the SP, BSP and Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) here.

The activists of SP and BSP were very enthusiastic as Mayawati appealed to the people to vote for Mulayam, who won the seat in 2014 but dropped it to represent Azamgarh in the Parliament.

Earlier in the day, Mayawati had said Mulayam is the only "real" backward community leader in the country and not a 'fake OBC' leader like Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The SP stalwart returned the favour saying that the BSP chief supported him whenever he was in need.

Mulayam said, "I am very pleased that respected Mayawati ji has come here to seek votes for me. I will never forget this favour."

"I urge you to give her huge respect because she supported me whenever I was in need," the SP stalwart told the cheering crowd.

"I want to tell you that we will have to be on the same stage," Mulayam urged the foe-turned-friend Mayawati.

Notably, the SP and the BSP had forged an alliance to defeat the BJP in the 1993 Assembly elections.

Relations between the two parties strained seemingly forever after some armed SP workers barged in a Lucknow guest house where Mayawati was meeting with BSP MLAs and leaders in 1995.

After 24 years, however, history took a turn to repeat itself with the SP, BSP and RLD joining hands to defeat BJP, this time in Lok Saha polls.

Activists from both of the parties said that the relation that soured between them after the guest house episode has come to normalcy.

They believe that the alliance will be instrumental to remove Prime Minister Narendra Modi from the helm of the next Central government.