Mayawati cut to the chase in Mainpuri this afternoon. Despite the 1995 unpleasant guest house fallout with Mulayam Singh Yadav, she had taken the 'tough' decision to join hands with the the Samajwadi Party, she said.

She then drew a distinction between the 'asli' and the 'nakli' leaders. Mulayam, she said, was an 'asli (real)' leader of the marginalised.

A day after her bar on election campaigning ended, the BSP chief labelled Prime Minister Narendra Modi a 'farzi' backward caste leader, unlike Mulayam. The BSP chief also made it clear that Akhilesh Yadav is the 'asli' successor of Mulayam's Samajwadi legacy.

Samajwadi Party patriarch Mulayam, who was the first to speak in Mainpuri, welcomed 'adarniya (respected) Mayawatiji' and said 'I will never forget this favour.' Mainpuri is Mulayam's seat and Mayawati was today the chief guest and main campaigner for him there. Mulayam has won Mainpuri four times before. But today was a special for the gathbandhan and Mainpuri, because Mulayam's once arch-rival and bitterest critic had come to campaign for him, seemingly having buried 24 years of acrimony.

As Mulayam spoke, Mayawati, in a cream salwar-kameez, smiled and nodded.

When she rose, Mayawati first addressed the elephant in the room, or rally. The people and the media would want to know why she was campaigning for Mulayam and the alliance despite the 'June 2, 1995, guest house kaand (episode)', she said. 'Desh ke aam janhith mein, ya party ke movement ke hith mein kabhi kabhi humein kuch kathin faisley bhi lene padte hain (in the interest of the country or the party movement, sometimes we have to take tough decisions),' she said.

What Mayawati referred to as the 'guest house kaand', started on June 1, 1995. That day, then Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mulayam was informed that ally BSP would withdraw support from his government. The next day, when Mayawati was meeting BSP legislators in a state guest house, Samajwadi leaders and supporters entered the premises and vandalised the property. Mayawati, according to some accounts, locked herself up in a suite, to escape the attack. According to some accounts, many of the Samajwadi supporters had firearms with them.

The next day, Uttar Pradesh governor Motilal Vora sacked the Mulayam government without allowing him the opportunity to prove his strength in the Assembly. On the evening of June 3, Mayawati took oath as chief minister with outside support from the BJP.

Today, Mayawati contrasted Mulayam with Modi. 'Yeh Pradhan Mantri ke tarah, nakli ya farzi pichde warg ke nahin hain (unlike the Prime Minister, Mulayam Singh is not from a fake backward caste),' she said. A 'nakli' leader will never be able to work for the backward castes, she warned the crowd.

In a recent rally in Maharashtra, Modi had accused Rahul Gandhi of abusing his caste. 'The Congress and its associates say that all the Modis in society are thieves.... This time they have crossed all limits and abused all people from backward communities,' he said.