Akhilesh Yadav Meets Mamata Banerjee Ahead Of SP’s Key Meeting In Bengal Over 2024 Lok Sabha Polls
SAMAJWADI Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Friday met West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee ahead of his party’s key meeting in Bengal over the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Following his meeting with Mamata, Akhilesh Yadav said that his party will maintain equidistance with both the BJP and the Congress and asserted that if “SP can defeat the BJP in Uttar Pradesh, the BJP can be defeated across the country”.
Samajwadi Party’s National Vice President Kiranmoy Nanda earlier had said that the main aim of SP’s National Executive Meeting will be to build public opinion against the Bharatiya Janata Party to stop it from coming to power again in the 2024 Lok Sabha election.
“In Bengal, we are with Mamata didi. Right now, our stand is we want to maintain equidistance from both the BJP and the Congress,” Akhilesh Yadav said, adding, “the Samajwadi Party is ready to make any sacrifice to protect our Constitution. If we can defeat the BJP in Uttar Pradesh, the BJP can be defeated across the country”.
“The preparations are done. The meeting will take place under the leadership of Akhilesh Yadav. The meeting will take place on March 18 and 19, and a rally with the party workers will take place on March 17,” Kiranmoy Nanda said, according to ANI.
He claimed that the Samajwadi Party is going to play a “big role” in preventing a third victory for the BJP in 2024 Lok Sabha elections. “Uttar Pradesh is the largest state with 80 constituencies. Akhilesh Yadav has full belief that we will win most of the seats, and BJP will not return to power,” Nanda asserted.
The Samajwadi Party’s go-to man in West Bengal also boasted of the warm relations between his state’s Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and his party Chief Akhilesh Yadav.
“Whenever Akhilesh Yadav comes to Bengal, he meets CM Mamata. SP supported TMC in the 2021 Bengal Assembly elections and even campaigned for TMC. In the 2022 UP Assembly polls, Mamata Banerjee also addressed two rallies in UP for our party. That’s why we have good relations with her,” he claimed.
“The talks regarding Opposition unity hold no value. Because every party is not strong in every state. So, our aim is that every party fights in the state, where it is strong, and then come together. Then BJP will lose. In the 1996 Lok Sabha elections as well, the ‘United Front’ was formed after the elections only,” he further said, on the possibility of opposition parties putting up a united front to defeat BJP.
Nanda further informed that Akhilesh Yadav will hold a press briefing after delivering a concluding speech on March 20. State unit Chiefs from 20 states besides senior MPs Jaya Bachchan and Shivpal Singh Yadav will attend the meeting.
(With Agency Inputs)
