Express News Service
LUCKNOW: Having joined the poll campaign in support of Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party, West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee urged the people of Uttar Pradesh to oust the BJP from the state to remove it from the Centre.
Addressing a joint virtual rally with SP chief Akhilesh Yadav here on Tuesday, the West Bengal CM cautioned the people of Uttar Pradesh against wasting their vote on the BJP in the coming UP Assembly elections.
Seeking votes in favour of the Akhilesh Yadav-led alliance, Mamata said SP was the only alternative to BJP in UP. She exhorted the people of Uttar Pradesh to oust the BJP from UP in order to root it out at the national level. “UP has a vast history. It has given the majority of PMs to the nation. If the BJP is defeated in UP, then it won’t survive at the national level. So vote dedicatedly against the BJP in UP,” said Banerjee.
The Trinamool Congress chief slammed UP CM Yogi Adityanath for alleged mismanagement of Covid-19 in the state, especially during the second wave.
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She claimed that when people were suffering during the second wave of COVID in UP, CM Yogi was campaigning in West Bengal to defeat her, last year. “So you had come to Bengal to defeat us…where were you when people were dying of Covid,” she said.
Accusing the state authorities under CM Yogi of failing to provide wood to people to perform the last rites of their loved ones who lost the battle of life toCOVID, Mamata asked whether the UP government didn’t have woods to cremate them. “We revere Ganga Ma. And here you threw dead bodies in Ganga. Many dead bodies floated to Bengal. We picked up those bodies and respectfully cremated them. Did you not have wood to cremate the bodies?” she asked.
Mamata Banerjee arrived in Lucknow on Monday evening in a show of support to the SP-led alliance contesting the assembly elections.
Mocking at the BJP’s Sankalp Patra released on Tuesday, the West Bengal CM wondered if it was a manifesto or “Moneyfesto”. The BJP had planned to release its manifesto on Sunday but deferred it by two days as a mark of respect to legendary singer Lata Mangeshkar who passed away on Sunday morning.
Banerjee said that the saffron party released its manifesto on Tuesday on hearing that she would be in Lucknow.
Raking up the Lakhimpur Kheri violence case, the TMC leader asked the BJP to seek forgiveness over the incident in which a Union minister’s son is accused of running over the SUV on protesting farmers.
Meanwhile, talking to media persons in the same interaction, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav took a jibe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s cancelled physical rally in Bijnor due to weather conditions, saying that the weather was bad for the BJP. “BJP’s plane will not land in UP now,” he said.
