Akhilesh Yadav ‘wipes out’ BJP and Congress in UP, ‘welcomes’ Mamata Banerjee

An alternate political front speculated to be led by TMC’s Mamata Banerjee to take on the BJP in the next general election may get an ally in SP chief Akhilesh Yadav.

Yadav hinted as much on Friday when he praised Banerjee for “the way she wiped out the BJP in Bengal”.

The SP chief is himself busy stitching up a platform to challenge the BJP in the crucial Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections scheduled for early next year, and told the media that the saffron party would be “wiped out” in UP like they were in the Bengal polls.

“I welcome her. The way she wiped out the BJP in Bengal… the people of Uttar Pradesh will wipe out the BJP,” Yadav said in Jhansi, where he was holding a rally.

According to media reports, Yadav is forming a “rainbow” alliance ahead of the state election based on regional parties in eastern UP and farmer support in the west.

Writing off the Congress, the former UP chief minister said: “The public will refuse them… and they will get 0 seats in the upcoming election.”

Also read: UP govt spending public money to get crowd for BJP rallies: Priyanka Gandhi

The SP and Congress had worked together for the 2017 state polls but an NDTV report quoted Yadav as saying “we did not have a good experience”.

Rumours of an alliance between the SP and Banerjee’s TMC come on the back of both parties taking digs at the Congress. Yadav had, prior to the Bengal election, also said his party would campaign on the TMC’s behalf.

Yadav in Jhansi also took aim at the BJP over the Purvanchal Expressway inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. “If Samajwadi Party can build the expressway in 22 months, why did BJP take 4.5 years to do the same work? This is because they don’t want to work for the welfare of people in UP,” he alleged.