Akhilesh offers support to Nitish if he chooses UP as home turf in 2024 polls

Even as Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar is trying to unite the Opposition ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, speculations are rife that he may contest for the Prime Minister’s post from Phulpur constituency in Uttar Pradesh.

Extending support to the Bihar chief minister, Samajwadi Party leader and former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav has said that Nitish can run from any seat in the state and will have the full cooperation of his party for the elections.

JD(U)’s national president Lalan Singh had recently said that Nitish has been offered to contest from at least three constituencies in Uttar Pradesh,

“There is nothing to accept or deny. Whether Nitish Kumar will contest Lok Sabha elections or not will be decided only at the right time, but Nitish Kumar has been offered to fight Lok Sabha elections from Ambedkar Nagar and Mirzapur also. It is the result of his mission to unite the opposition parties that party workers are demanding that he should contest elections from Uttar Pradesh,” Singh said.

Stating that Uttar Pradesh is a strategic place electorally as it has the maximum number of Lok Sabha seats, Singh said while the BJP at present has 65 MPs from the state, a joint effort by Opposition parties could lead to restricting it to 15-20 seats.

Reacting to Nitish’s ambitions, Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya, however, has said that the Bihar chief minister has no prospects in Uttar Pradesh, now that he doesn’t have the support of the BJP.

“On his own, Kumar barely managed to win two seats. His seat share increased in subsequent polls as he contested with BJP support. But now, without Modi’s face, he stands no chance in UP and even in Bihar would find things difficult. In fact, he would not open his account,” Maurya told reporters at an event in Uttar Pradesh’s Unnao on Saturday.