Mayawati to seek votes for Mulayam in Mainpuri

Lucknow: Burying her 25-year-old bitter feud with Samajwadi Party (SP) founder Mulayam Singh Yadav, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati will seek support for him at an election rally in Mainpuri on April 19, SP spokesperson Rajendra Chaudhary said on Friday.

The rally would be addressed by Mayawati, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav and Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) President Ajit Singh. Mulayam Singh has been named the SP candidate from Mainpuri.

The SP and BSP chiefs will hold 11 joint rallies to seek support for the SP-BSP-RLD alliance which has been stitched just before the Lok Sabha elections scheduled for April and May.

Chaudhary said that the joint rallies would be held to ensure "victories of alliance candidates and ouster of the BJP from the centre".

The rallies would also send a message that the workers and supporters of both the parties had set aside their political rivalry and joined ranks to defeat the BJP, he added.

All publicity materials from now on will have the pictures of Mayawati and Mulayam Singh with a prominent display of the election symbols of SP and BSP.

Akilesh Yadav and Mayawati will also address rallies at Deoband in Saharanpur (April 7), Badaun (April 13), Agra (April 16), Mainpuri (April 19), Rampur and Firozabad (April 20).

Firozabad will witness a big battle at the hustings between SP-BSP candidate Akshay Yadav, cousin of Akhilesh Yadav, and his estranged uncle and Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party-Lohia (PSP-L) President Shivpal Singh Yadav.

After a brief break, Mayawati and Akhilesh yadav will address rallies at Dimple Yadav's constituency Kannauj on April 25, Faizabad (May 1), Azamgarh (May 8) and Gorakhpur (May 13). The joint campaign will conclude with a rally in Varanasi, the constituency of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on May 16.

The SP is contesting 37 seats under the seat sharing deal while the BSP will contest 38 seats. Three seats have gone to the RLD while two seats, Amethi and Rae Bareli, have been left for the Congress.