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In what could be an indication of the resolve on both sides to strengthen their alliance in Uttar Pradesh, Deputy Prime Minister and senior BJP leader Lal Kishenchand Advani and Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Kanshi Ram will for the first time address a joint rally in Lucknow on September 28.
"The rally was necessitated in view of the campaign launched by the Samajwadi Party against the Dr B R Ambedkar memorial being built in Lucknow," Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister and BSP's second-in-command Mayawati on Monday told mediapersons in Lucknow.
"While Dr Ambedkar is the ideologue for millions of dalits, he is also respected widely as the architect of the Indian Constitution. However, Samajwadi party leader Mulayam Singh Yadav has demeaned him by terming the memorial as a den for debauchery," she said.
What has irked her even more is the Congress party's silence on the issue.
"It is a matter of shame that even the Congress has decided to overlook such derogatory remarks against the father of the Constitution. We will voice our protest against these insolent utterances by the Samajwadi Party leader at the rally," she said.
BJP leaders in the state were taken by surprise by the development. 'If Mayawati has managed to rope in Advani, this alliance is here to stay', was their reaction.
The decision to hold the rally, where the BJP will express solidarity with the BSP, was taken at a meeting between Mayawati and Advani in Delhi on Sunday and has taken most people in the state by surprise.
Mayawati took the initiative for this entire exercise only after taking state BJP chief Vinay Katiyar and her cabinet colleague Lalji Tandon into confidence.
The rally will be preceded by a meeting of BSP workers at the party's state headquarters on September 8. Significantly, that very day, Mayawati proposes to meet all district level heads of the BJP later in the evening setting another precedent in the history of coalition politics in the state.
The chief minister has also declared that she would go in for the long overdue cabinet expansion soon after the budget session due later in September.
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