'Guest House' incident, that had made SP-BSP enemies

The 'Guest house' incident was the one which had turned friends— Samajwadi Party (SP) and BSP— bitter enemies.

It had also given a political handle to rival parties to prevent the formidable regional satraps from coming together by regularly raking up the incident.

In 1993 the SP, led by Mulayam Singh Yadav, and the BSP, then led by its founder Kanshiram, had joined hands to defeat the BJP at a time when polarisation was at its peak following the demolition of the Babri Masjid at Ayodhya a year before.

Though BJP was expected to sweep the 1993 Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls riding on the Ram temple wave, the SP-BSP combine put up a strong fight.

They together won 176 seats. BJP had won 177 seats but with the Congress' support Mulayam became the chief minister of the coalition government.

Two years later, the BSP withdrew its support to the government and joined hands with the BJP to form another coalition government.

Angry over the withdrawal of support, SP workers attacked Mayawati, while she was holding a meeting with her party workers at the state 'Guest House' on Meerabai Marg in Lucknow on June 2, 1995.

Mayawati was saved by Bramha Dutt Dwivedi, a senior BJP leader. Since then the two parties never tied up and had remained bitter foes.

Even Prime Minister Narendra Modi referred to the 'Guest House' incident in his speech at a rally recently to slam the SP-BSP alliance.