The portion of the Assembly building painted white

Lucknow, May 15: Mayavati is painting the Vidhan Sabha building white, and the Congress has seen red on the eve of Result Day.

The BSP, earlier accused of painting Lucknow’s road dividers blue — the colour of its flag — is under attack for changing the peach stone colour of a part of the Assembly building.

This is the first time the colour of the building, modelled on Avadhi architecture, has been changed since the British constructed it in 1922.

The Congress, which is coming around to the view the BSP will not support it in the numbers game due to begin in Delhi tomorrow, today appealed to governor T.V. Rajeshwar to stop the colour change.

“The natural beauty of the historical monument has been robbed after the stone slabs were painted white,” fumed Rita Bahuguna Joshi, the state Congress chief. “We demand punishment for the culprits.”

The war over white coincided with the party’s contention that it would rather go for a “natural” alliance with the Samajwadi Party than with the BSP. “I know no Congress leader has talked to any BSP leader so far but dialogue with the Samajwadi Party leadership has started,” Joshi said.

But it wasn’t only the Congress that was upset the peach colour that matched the stones used in the construction was being changed. Social worker and Magsaysay award winner Sandeep Pandey met the governor to protest on behalf of Lucknow’s civil society.

Architect Namrata Srivastava said the domes and arches of the building go well with the stone colour. White, she said, is a complete mismatch.

Former Bengal governor Viren J. Shah, who had the Raj Bhavan in Calcutta painted white, feels tradition should not come in the way of aesthetics. Shah said he had changed the “PWD yellow” colour because white looked better. His successor Gopal Gandhi, however, has repainted part of the building to its original colour.