When Mahana asked “who is he?” for Rajnath, Kalyan

Speaker shares his deep association with Atal, Sushma, Arun Jaitley

LUCKNOW: Uttar Pradesh assembly speaker Satish Mahana on Tuesday went down memory lane and narrated interesting anecdotes from his political career spanning several decades.

The instances he spoke about included contesting his first assembly election in 1991, his association with former PM the late Atal Bihari Vajpayee and BJP stalwarts the late Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley, besides not being able to recognise senior party leaders Rajnath Singh and Kalyan Singh when he was new to electoral politics.

““I was among the few politicians who was close to both Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley,” said Mahana, an eight-time MLA from Kanpur, a feat which no previous speaker of Uttar Pradesh Vidhan Sabha shares. His political journey began in 1991 at the age of 31 years when he was an active Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) worker but he knew no one in the BJP then.

First visit to BJP office in Lucknow

Mahana recalled he got a phone call from the BJP office informing him about his candidature for the Kanpur Cantonment assembly seat in the 1991 polls. “I was told to file my nomination papers the next day,” he said.

“As the nomination process was still going on, I came to the BJP office in Lucknow. There was a crowd outside the party office. Dressed in formal trousers and shirt, I also joined the crowd,” Mahana recalled.

That was his first visit to the BJP office in Lucknow. In fact, till then he had not even visited the BJP office in Kanpur. Mahana was standing next to a person when a crowd came along with a BJP leader.

“Who is this person?” Mahana enquired about the BJP leader. The person standing next to him replied, “Rajnath Singh, national president of Rashtriya Yuva Morcha.”

Thereafter, more supporters arrived with another party leader. “Who is this person?” Mahana again asked. The person replied, “Kalyan Singh.” Bewildered, the person asked Mahana, “Who are you (aap kaun hai)?” “When I replied that I am a party candidate from Kanpur, the person gave me a strange look and moved a few steps away, assuming me to be an insane person,” said Mahana.

When RSS leader helped him collect party symbol

Mahana again came to Lucknow with his friends by road to collect the party symbol that he had to deposit as part of the nomination process. He reached the BJP office in the state capital late at night but was told to come back in the morning. He was told it had been withheld. Later, he went to the RSS office at Model House and met senior functionary Bal ji. “Bal ji, an old friend of my father, telephoned Ram Prakash Gupta. After a long conversation, Bal ji told to me to collect the party symbol,” he said.