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UP elections: Mamata Banerjee to campaign for Akhilesh Yadav
In 2021, SP national vice-president Kiranmay Nanda and Rajya Sabha member Jaya Bachchan campaigned for the TMC ahead of the West Bengal assembly polls
KOLKATA: West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee was scheduled to arrive in Lucknow on Monday to address a joint rally and press conference with Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav on Tuesday days before the first phase of polling in Uttar Pradesh on Thursday. The polls in the state are being held across seven phases.
“Banerjee, who is scheduled to reach Lucknow by an [Monday] evening flight, is expected to meet... Akhilesh Yadav today [Monday]. The two will address a joint press conference on Tuesday. After the joint press conference, Banerjee along with Yadav would do a virtual rally for the SP,” said a leader of Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress (TMC).
Banerjee also campaigned for the SP in the 2017 assembly polls in Lucknow. In 2021, SP national vice-president Kiranmay Nanda and Rajya Sabha member Jaya Bachchan campaigned for the TMC ahead of the West Bengal assembly polls. In January, Nanda met Banerjee to invite her to Uttar Pradesh to campaign for SP.
A second TMC leader said Banerjee was also scheduled to campaign in Varanasi.
Nanda last month said Yadav wants Banerjee to campaign for them because she is the face of the anti-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) politics at the national level. “The BJP has stopped all physical campaigns by the Opposition... citing the Covid-19 pandemic. It is using the Election Commission. No more than five people are being allowed at any meeting. Under these circumstances, a virtual campaign is the only solution. Banerjee has agreed to this,” Nanda said in Kolkata after meeting Banerjee last month.
The TMC swept the 2021 West Bengal assembly polls, winning 213 out of the 292 seats. The BJP, which had set a target to win more than 200 seats, could bag only 77 seats.
