LUCKNOW: Having joined the election campaign in support of the Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party, West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee urged the people of Uttar Pradesh to oust BJP from the state to remove it from the Centre. She also termed BJP’s manifesto a “moneyfesto”.
At a joint virtual rally with the SP chief on Tuesday, Mamata cautioned the people of UP against wasting their vote on BJP. Seeking votes for the Akhilesh-led alliance, Mamata said SP was the only alternative in UP. She exhorted the people of the state to oust BJP from UP in order to root it out at the national level. “UP has a vast history. It has given a majority of PMs to the nation. If BJP is defeated in UP, then it won’t survive at the national level. So vote against BJP.”
Mamata arrived Lucknow on Monday evening in a show of support to the SP-led alliance. Mocking at BJP’s manifesto released on Tuesday, she called it a “moneyfesto”. The BJP had planned to release the manifesto on Sunday, but deferred it by two days as a mark of respect to singer Lata Mangeshkar who passed away that morning.
The Bengal chief minister claimed the saffron party released its manifesto on Tuesday on hearing that she would be in Lucknow. The Trinamool Congress chief slammed UP CM Yogi Adityanath for alleged mismanagement of Covid, especially during the second wave. She claimed that when people were suffering, Adityanath was campaigning in West Bengal. “You (Adityanath) had come to Bengal to defeat us, where were you when people were dying of Covid,” she said.
Accusing state authorities of failing to provide wood to people to perform last rites of their loved ones, Mamata asked what was the government doing. “We revere Ganga Ma. And here you threw dead bodies in Ganga. Many bodies floated down to Bengal. We cremated them with respect. Did you not have wood to cremate the bodies?”
Raking up the Lakhimpur Kheri violence case, the TMC supremo asked BJP to seek forgiveness over the incident in which a Union minister’s son is accused of running over agiting farmers. SP chief Akhilesh took a jibe at Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s cancelled physical rally in Bijnor, saying that the weather is bad for the saffron party. “BJP’s plane will not land in UP now,” he said.