E-Paper
Akhilesh to attend KCR rally, puts decision on Cong invite on hold
Samajwadi Party national president Akhilesh Yadav gave this information at a press conference in Lucknow
The Samajwadi Party (SP) national president Akhilesh Yadav has accepted Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) president and Telangana chief minister K Chandrashekar Rao’s invitation to attend a public rally at Khammam on January 18. On the other hand, he has put Congress’s invitation to join the concluding function of Rahul Gandhi-led Bharat Jodo Yatra at Srinagar on January 30 on hold.
Addressing a press conference at the SP state unit office on Thursday, Yadav said, “I have received the invitation for the BRS public rally and will attend it.” Regarding the Congress invite, he said, “I have received the invitation from the Congress to attend the concluding function of Bharat Jodo Yatra but I will discuss about the invite with party leaders before taking the final decision over attending the event.”
Earlier, the SP chief had distanced himself from the Bharat Jodo Yatra when it entered Uttar Pradesh on January 3. Yadav had then said he did not receive any invitation from the Congress. The SP has a different ideology while the Congress and the BJP are the same,” he had said.
Later in a letter to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, the SP chief had extended best wishes for the yatra. Top Congress leaders had urged Yadav to attend the yatra but he rejected the invitation stating that party’s sentiments were with the yatra.
The SP chief’s decision to attend the BRS rally and non- commitment over the Congress’s invite are seen as an initiative by the Samajwadi Party to join the non-Congress front of regional parties led by the Telangana CM K Chandrashekar Rao aka KCR. The leaders invited to Khammam rally include Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal; Punjab CM, Bhagwant Mann; Kerala CM, Pinarayi Vijayan, Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren and JD (S) leader HD Kumaraswamy.
Congress national president Mallikarjun Kharge has written letters to the leaders of the 21 opposition parties inviting them to join the concluding function of Bharat Jodo Yatra.
