Uttar Pradesh will see a one-on-one fight between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Samajwadi Party, and Akhilesh Yadav will emerge victorious, Trinamool Congress chief and West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee said on Tuesday.
Addressing a press conference with Yadav, Banerjee tweaked the “khela hobe’ campaign anthem of her party for the 2021 Assembly polls to ‘Khela Hoga’ (the game is on), as she stressing that if “Bengal can do it (defeat BJP), so can Uttar Pradesh”.
Banerjee is on a two-day campaigning tour in Uttar Pradesh.
Polling for the 403-member Uttar Pradesh legislative assembly will be held in seven phases starting February 10. The votes will be counted on March 10.
“If Yogi (Adityanath) ji comes to power, he will eat you up politically as well as economically,” she added.
Calling the BJP a “khatra party”, the TMC leader said the party posed a danger to India.
“This time, division of votes is not going to happen in Uttar Pradesh. The BJP had tried it very much in Bengal, including use of money power, to entice people, used central agencies to intimidate people, but they were fearless, and it boiled down to one-on-one,” Banerjee said. “Here also, it is going to be a head on fight, and Akhilesh ji is going to emerge victorious. The SP will win and it will be history.”
Yadav, meanwhile, welcomed Banerjee, saying: “It is a matter of great pride that the CM of the land of Subhash Chandra Bose and Ravindra Nath Tagore is here. She defeated the communal forces in West Bengal when the BJP had put all its energy in Bengal”. “Now that she (Mamata) is here, we all will eat ‘jeet ka rasgulla (the rasgulla of victory)’,” he added.
{{/usCountry}}Yadav, meanwhile, welcomed Banerjee, saying: “It is a matter of great pride that the CM of the land of Subhash Chandra Bose and Ravindra Nath Tagore is here. She defeated the communal forces in West Bengal when the BJP had put all its energy in Bengal”. “Now that she (Mamata) is here, we all will eat ‘jeet ka rasgulla (the rasgulla of victory)’,” he added.
{{/usCountry}}On a day that saw the end of campaigning for the first phase of polls on February 10 in western districts of the state, Banerjee said: “Vote unitedly and make the SP win and defeat the BJP. I came to say this.
The Bengal CM will visit Varanasi on February 14.
Hitting out at incumbent chief minister Adityanath and invoking Ayodhya, she said: “In Bengal, Gangasagar mela takes place. Who conducts that mela? It is Gyandas ji. Where does he live? In Ayodhya. His trust is there. We conduct the mela. People come from all over the country. We don’t ask people their state or their caste or religion.”
Hitting out at the Centre, she said: “Today you say that you gave free Covid vaccines. How free? They are from people’s money. Was it your money?”
“But Mogambo khush hai,” she said in an indirect reference to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
While Banerjee was addressing the media in Lucknow, BJP leaders targeted her from Bengal.
“It is only natural that a leader who propagates dynastic rule will stand by another who represents that same,” said Sukanta Majumdar, the state’s BJP president. “People cannot be fooled.”