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UP polls: Mamata Banerjee in Lucknow, says she is here for SP’s win, BJP’s defeat
Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee will hold joint events with Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav in Lucknow on Tuesday for the UP polls
West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee will hold joint events with Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav for the UP polls in Lucknow on Tuesday.
On arrival at Lucknow airport on Monday evening, Mamata Banerjee, in the presence of Akhilesh Yadav, said: “I am here for the SP’s victory, the BJP’s defeat.” It was a reference to the UP polls that will be held in seven phases between February 10 and March 7.
Akhilesh Yadav, in a tweet in Hindi, wrote: “Together we had defeated (BJP) in Bengal, now will defeat (BJP) in UP. It’s a promise to Didi, we will emerge victorious again.”
Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief Mamata Banerjee would hold a joint press conference and a virtual rally along with Akhilesh Yadav, who received her at the Lucknow airport on Monday evening.
Earlier, in Kolkata, before leaving for Lucknow, Mamata Banerjee said: “I am going to campaign for the SP in Lucknow. Akhilesh Ji has invited me. I want Akhilesh Ji and the SP to win in Uttar Pradesh and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to lose. This would show the way forward. Everyone should support Akhilesh Ji in his fight. The TMC is not contesting from any seat in Uttar Pradesh but still, I am going there to give moral support.”
“I would be also going to Varanasi. I have been invited to campaign there ahead of the last phase of polls. I would be visiting the Shiva temple at Varanasi and seeing the aarti there. I have been to Varanasi earlier too but missed the aarti. So, this time I would see it and also hold meetings,” Mamata Banerjee said in Kolkata.
When asked whether it would have been better had the Congress supported the SP in Uttar Pradesh instead of going for a multi-cornered election, Mamata Banerjee said: “It would have been better had it been a united fight. When there is nothing to gain, then why engage in diving into someone else’s vote bank. We had tried but (Congress) didn’t pay heed.”
Both Akhilesh and Mamata share bonhomie both political and at personal levels. This is not the first time Banerjee has come to Lucknow for the SP. Ahead of the 2017 UP assembly polls, she had come to support the SP when she held an anti-demonetisation public meeting at the 1090 crossing in Lucknow. Akhilesh was the UP chief minister then. Yadav had supported Mamata and TMC in both the 2016 and 2012 West Bengal assembly elections. In 2021, Yadav had sent SP national vice-president Kiranmay Nanda and SP Rajya Sabha member Jaya Bachchan to campaign for the TMC ahead of the West Bengal assembly polls.
Originally, there were plans for Mamata Banerjee to ride Akhilesh’s Vijay Rath along with Jaya Bachchan and former Kannauj MP Dimple Yadav. However, the idea was dropped when the election commission had notified UP polls along with four other states and also had issued certain restrictions regarding campaigning.
In January, Akhilesh Yadav sent Nanda to meet Banerjee at her south Kolkata residence to invite her to Uttar Pradesh to campaign for SP ahead of the polls.
The TMC had swept the 2021 West Bengal assembly polls winning 213 out of the 292 seats where elections were held. The BJP, which had set a target to win more than 200 seats, could bag only 77 seats.
