West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will on Thursday address a joint rally with Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav in Varanasi, ahead of the last phase of the Assembly election in Uttar Pradesh.
Ms. Banerjee’s visit will coincide with a three-day tour by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. This is her second visit to the State; she had spent two days in the first week of February.
The Trinamool Congress (TMC) is not contesting the Assembly election in the State, but Ms. Banerjee, in an earlier announcement, had said that her party would be preparing to fight a few seats from here in the general election of 2024. The party began work on building a unit in the State after senior Congress leader Laliteshpati Tripathi joined the TMC.
“Mamata Banerjee is going to Varanasi at the invitation of Akhilesh Yadav and to express solidarity and support for the Samajwadi Party in the ongoing U.P. Assembly election,” TMC national spokesperson Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar told The Hindu.
Ms. Banerjee will also visit the Kashi Vishwanath temple.
The SP had shown similar solidarity during the West Bengal Assembly election last year, when the party’s Rajya Sabha MP Jaya Bachchan spent more than two weeks campaigning for the TMC in the State.
Ms. Dastidar did not elaborate on whether this campaign pit stop is part of the party’s strategy to carve out a bigger role for itself in national politics. “Ms. Banerjee, as a seven-time MP, three-time Chief Minister and multiple-time Cabinet Minister, has friends across political parties. As for our role in 2024, we shall decide on it,” the spokesperson said.
The TMC has called the second meeting of its reconstituted working committee on March 10 in Delhi. The meeting will coincide with the results of the Assembly elections going on in five States. It is slated to discuss the steps the TMC intends to expand its base beyond West Bengal.
The party, for the first time, contested the Goa Assembly election in February. The TMC also has been working in Tripura and Meghalaya.
Ms. Banerjee’s presence in the national capital on March 10 clearly signals her wish to be a significant player in Delhi.
The TMC has been trying to elbow out the Congress as the key Opposition party on the back of its record in trouncing the BJP in a one-on-one battle, with its third consecutive victory in West Bengal on May 2 last year.
Jayant to join Mamata, Akhilesh for joint poll rally in Varanasi on March 3
RLD chief Jayant Chaudhary will be joining Ms. Banerjee and Akhilesh Yadav for a joint poll rally in Uttar Pradesh’s Varanasi on Thursday.
The Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD), which is fighting the U.P. assembly elections in tie-up with Mr. Yadav’s SP and is its major ally for western region of the State, made the announcement on social media on Wednesday.
The joint rally will be held in Airhe village in Harhua block of Varanasi 12 p.m. onwards, the RLD said. - PTI
