UP polls: TMC not in fray, Mamata to hold virtual press meet with Akhilesh in UP, says SP leader

Samajwadi Party leader Kiranmoy Nanda said Mamata Banerjee will visit poll-bound Uttar Pradesh on February 8 to meet Yadav

The Trinamool Congress and its supremo Mamata Banerjee are not keen on contesting the upcoming Assembly election in Uttar Pradesh, said Samajwadi Party leader Kiranmoy Nanda.

File photo of West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee (ANI)

The former Bengal minister, who is not the vice-president of the Akhilesh Yadav-led party, said, Banerjee will visit the poll-bound state on February 8 to meet Yadav for a virtual press conference to be held in Lucknow and Varanasi.

“The TMC and Mamata Banerjee don't want to contest in UP. All seats will be given to Akhilesh Yadav,” Nanda was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.

Yadav had sent the SP’s Rajya Sabha MP and veteran actor Jaya Bachchan as the party’s emissary to Bengal to campaign for the ruling Trinamool Congress ahead the 2021 polls.

In its bid to expand base beyond Bengal, the Trinamool Congress has been aggressively campiagning in the other poll-bound state of Goa.