Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav on Tuesday exuded confidence about his party's prospects in the coming polls in Uttar Pradesh. He was speaking in a press conference with TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee in Lucknow.
Akhilesh congratulated Mamata for the TMC's victory in last year's West Bengal assembly polls. He claimed the BJP was now more troubled with Mamata's arrival in Uttar Pradesh. Akhilesh declared the “BJP's aircraft of lies will not be able to land in UP.” He appeared to be referring to leaders of the BJP not being able to campaign in Uttar Pradesh due to bad weather.
Mamata declared she would travel to Varanasi on February 15. She stated she would not contest in Uttar Pradesh, but would support Akhilesh, referring to him as her “brother”. Mamata said she had come to Uttar Pradesh to implore the people to vote for the Samajwadi Party.
She said “If the BJP is removed from UP, it will be removed from the country.”
Mamata also appeared to take a jibe at the Congress, comparing it to a “cuckoo” that moved around. She called on people to not waste their votes. In particular, she called on minorities and all castes to not split their votes.
Mamata demanded that the BJP apologise for the incidents of rape in Hathras and Unnao and for cracking down on protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act and NRC.
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She claimed Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath was campaigning in the West Bengal polls instead of fighting Covid in his state. She recollected that her government had conducted funerals for bodies floating in the Ganga from Uttar Pradesh and told the BJP to apologise for such incidents, before seeking votes. She said the BJP should provide jobs for kin of Covid victims in vacancies in the Railways.
She slammed Prime Minister Narendra Modi for claiming he had given free Covid vaccines, reminding him that the money for it came from the people. Mamata referred to the PM CARES fund, noting it had taken money from government employees, but was yet to be audited.
