KOLKATA, Mar 19:
Exuding confidence that an opposition alliance would take shape in the days to come, Samajwadi Party supremo Akhilesh Yadav said regional parties would play a key role in putting up a fight against the BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
However, on the role of the Congress in this proposed opposition front, Yadav said it is for the grand old party to decide.
“Efforts are on to forge an opposition alliance or front. Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao are making efforts (on their own). I am confident that in the days to come, an opposition alliance will take shape, which will fight against the BJP,” he told PTI Video in an interview.
To a question whether he is putting the Congress and the BJP on the same pedestal, the SP chief said it is the regional parties in various states which are fighting the saffron camp.
“In many states, the Congress doesn’t exist in comparison to the BJP, but regional parties are fighting tooth and nail against the saffron camp on the ground, and I am hopeful that they will succeed,” he said.
When told that regional parties such as the JD (U), RJD and the DMK are keen on having the Congress in the opposition alliance, Yadav said they are already in a coalition with the grand old party.
“It is a question of a big fight, and the Congress itself will decide its role in this fight,” he said.
Asked who would be the face of the opposition camp in the next Lok Sabha elections, Yadav said it would be decided after the polls and is “not a pertinent question” right now.
“You are talking about face. What about the (BJP’s) face in 2014 and 2019, who made false promises to win the election?” he said without naming Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
None of the promises made by the BJP in 2014 and 2019 was fulfilled, the SP chief claimed.
When asked whether his party would contest in the Raebareli and Amethi Lok Sabha seats in UP – considered pocket boroughs of the Congress, Yadav alleged that SP workers are being killed in Amethi.
“In Amethi, our cadres are being killed. The Samajwadi Party workers are questioning who will fight for them. It is the Samajwadi workers there who are supporting each other; the Congress workers are not coming out in our support,” he said. (PTI)
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