Withdrawal of case against Mulayam: Maya aims patch-up?

BSP supremo Mayawati's decision to withdraw the case against Samajwadi Party (SP) patron Mulayam Singh Yadav in the state guest house incident was being seen in the political circles here as an attempt to keep the possibility of future cooperation between the two parties alive.

SP workers had attacked Mayawati, while she was holding a meeting with her party workers at the state 'Guest House' on Meerabai Marg here on June 2, 1995, after BSP had withdrawn support to then Mulayam Singh Yadav government in UP.

Mayawati had been saved by Bramha Dutt Dwivedi, a senior BJP leader. Since then the two parties had turned bitter foes.

Senior BSP leader S C Mishra said here on Friday that Mayawati had approached the court seeking withdrawal of the case against Mulayam. Mayawati had also told her party workers a few days back that she was withdrawing the case at the request of SP president Akhilesh Yadav.

Mayawati, whose party had contested the Lok Sabha polls in alliance with the SP in Uttar Pradesh, had walked out of the same after the alliance failed to click. BSP could win ten seats while the SP managed to win only five seats in the LS polls.

The two parties contested the recently held by-polls at 13 Assembly seats separately. BSP failed to retain its lone seat of Jalalpur, where it was defeated by the SP. The SP also wrested a seat from the BJP.

A senior SP leader here told DH that Mayawati might have withdrawn the case to ''make peace'' with Akhilesh and keep the chances of a future alliance alive.

Akhilesh welcomed the decision and said that there was no ''bitterness'' between them (Mayawati-Akhilesh).

Senior BJP leader and UP deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya said that the decision by Mayawati had exposed the ''true character'' of the two parties.