Invited to Uttar Pradesh, Mamata Banerjee to campaign for Samajwadi Party in Lucknow in February

KOLKATA: Chief minister Mamata Banerjee will go to Lucknow to address a press conference and a virtual rally against BJP along with Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav on February 8.
The SP wants Banerjee alongside Akhilesh as the party sees her as the “national face” in the fight against BJP. Banerjee’s next stop is Varanasi.
Former Bengal minister and SP vice-president Kiranmoy Nanda made the announcement after a half-hour meeting with the CM at her Kalighat home on Tuesday afternoon.Nanda had come as Akhilesh’s emissary to invite Banerjee to the programme.
Explaining the reason for the invite when Trinamool Congress was not contesting any seat in the UP polls beginning February 10, Nanda said: “Mamata is not only the leader of Bengal. The way she won the 2021Bengal polls against BJP, going full blast, is an inspiration to our party workers. She is now the national face in the fight against BJP. ”
The Trinamool chief, he added, would address a press conference and a virtual rally in Lucknow. “The Lucknow rally date is final. The date for Varanasi rally will be decided later,” Nanda said.
Political observers see Banerjee’s Lucknow visit for election campaign as a reciprocation of SP MP and personal friend Jaya Bachchan’s particiption in campaigns for Trinamool in the 2021 polls. The SP invite to Banerjee gains significance when other anti-BJP parties such as Aam Admi Party and Congress are fighting the UP polls independently.
Banerjee’s Lucknow visit is also a rebuttal to the Congress campaign in Goa that Trinamool is trying to divide anti-BJP votes.
“Trinamool is not fielding candidates for the UP assembly polls like we (SP) didn’t contest any seat in Bengal but campaigned for Banerjee’s party. We want Mamata Banerjee at two places in Uttar Pradesh that would give a boost to our rank and file, and also a section of voters against BJP,” Nanda said.
The SP leader said in Kolkata that the party was fighting against odds in the runup to assembly polls. “Our Lucknow party office has been cordoned off by police. As many as 2,500 SP workers have been arrested. There is a complete ban on mass rallies and public meetings.
Yet, amid restrictions due to Covid, people are pouring in to Akhileshji’s campaign while chairs are left empty during Prime Minister Narendra Modi or Union home minister Amit Shah’s address,” Nanda said.