Samajwadi Party spokesperson Rajendra Chaudhary on Tuesday said party chief Akhilesh Yadav has “no plans” to attend the INDIA bloc meeting which is scheduled for tomorrow. This comes a day after West Bengal chief minister and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee announced skipping the upcoming meeting in which the member parties are set to chalk out the strategy for the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
Earlier, while addressing the media, CM Banerjee said she would have rescheduled her itinerary if she had the information about the meeting. "I have got no information so I kept a programme in North Bengal. If we had the information, we wouldn't have scheduled those programmes. We would have definitely gone (for the meeting), but we have not received any information," she said. The participation of any other TMC member in the meeting is still unclear at this point.
Also read: Mamata Banerjee 'not aware' of next INDIA bloc meet, Sanjay Raut reacts
Responding to CM Banerjee's claim, Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Sanjay Raut said said the meeting by the Opposition's INDIA bloc, scheduled for tomorrow, was “not called in a hurry” and that it was planned “even before the declaration of (assembly) election results.”
"This meeting was not called in a hurry. Even before the declaration of election results, this meeting was being planned...Mallikarjun Kharge spoke to Uddhav Thackeray about the meeting 2 days before the election results were announced...Uddhav Thackeray will reach Delhi tomorrow and take part in the meeting," the Shiv Sena (UBT) MP said.
BJP takes jibe at the Opposition
{{/usCountry}}"This meeting was not called in a hurry. Even before the declaration of election results, this meeting was being planned...Mallikarjun Kharge spoke to Uddhav Thackeray about the meeting 2 days before the election results were announced...Uddhav Thackeray will reach Delhi tomorrow and take part in the meeting," the Shiv Sena (UBT) MP said.
BJP takes jibe at the Opposition
{{/usCountry}}Meanwhile, the Bharatiya Janata Party took the opportunity to slam the Opposition alliance and said the West Bengal CM has realised that “there is no future in INDIA bloc.”
“Mamata Banerjee has understood that there is no future of the INDIA alliance that's why she is skipping the meeting,” West Bengal BJP president Sukanta Majumdar said.
BJP MP Dilip Ghosh asked the whereabouts of Bihar CM Nitish Kumar, who spearheaded the Opposition coalition, and said the action by Mamata Banerjee is “confusing” people.
"This is their internal matter. Where is the INDIA alliance? They had tea together thrice and became an alliance. Nitish Kumar took up its leadership. Where is he today? He doesn't attend the meetings. Mamata Banerjee went there and saw that nothing was going to come out of it so she then sent her nephew. Now, she too doesn't go and says that she doesn't know about it...People are confused," he said.