Samajwadi Party (SP) leaders Mulayam Singh Yadav and Amar Singh today dared Chief Minister Mayawati to arrest them and described the cases registered against them by the Uttar Pradesh government as ‘‘fabricated’’ and ‘‘a joint conspiracy hatched by the BSP and BJP’’.Addressing a press conference in nearby Sang Dhesian village after a rally organised on the occasion of Baisakhi, Mulayam said he was ready to go to jail for ‘‘upholding the truth’’, ‘‘fighting against corruption’’ and ‘‘for the future of UP’’.Asked about the Mahapardafash rally held by the BSP at Lucknow today, Mulayam said the corruption charges levelled by Mayawati against him were baseless. ‘‘I am willing to face a CBI inquiry,’’ he said, adding that if he could survive the wrath of Indira Gandhi during the Emergency, Mayawati could not scare him.Later in the evening in New Delhi, Amar Singh put up a virtuoso performance before the press. Asserting he would prefer jail than being ‘‘a witness to the horrors of Mayawati Raj’’, he said corruption charges against Mulayam were completely bogus and he had never used the funds ‘‘to buy huge diamonds, bake massive cakes or build palatial houses for Kanshi Ram’’.He was at his best though when taking on Mayawati’s charge that he was behind the videotape on her, thanks to his connections with the celluloid world. ‘‘I wish I had made the tape, it would have been a great honour for me to record such an achievement. But I do not have access to her bathroom or her bedroom or her party meetings. Only someone close to her could have recorded it.’’In a press release in Lucknow, the SP termed the BSP rally a ‘‘flop show’’. The SP also threatened to give a ‘‘befitting reply’’ to the allegations levelled by her today. The party has already announced a hullabol agitation from April 19 against the state government’s ‘‘conspiracy’’ to implicate party leaders.Regarding Mayawati’s claim that the videotapes released by the SP exposing her were ‘‘fake’’, Mulayam said he was willing to face a CBI probe over it. Amar Singh said that if the tapes were found to be doctored, he would quit politics. On the contrary, Mulayam said, Mayawati’s corruption knew no bounds. An inquiry in an area of just 1.5-2 km around her residence would be enough to keep her in jail for her whole life, he claimed.
