'If Bengal can do it, so can Uttar Pradesh': Mamata Banerjee backs Akhilesh, says UP will see one-on-one fight

Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday said that like West Bengal Assembly polls Uttar Pradesh will see a one-on-one fight between the BJP and the Samajwadi Party with Akhilesh Yadav emerging victorious.

Lucknow: Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday said that like West Bengal Assembly polls Uttar Pradesh will see a one-on-one fight between the BJP and the Samajwadi Party with Akhilesh Yadav emerging victorious. At a joint press conference with SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, Banerjee tweaked the "khela hobe' campaign anthem of her party for last year's Assembly polls to 'Khela Hoga' (the game is on) and stressed that if "Bengal can do it (defeat BJP), so can Uttar Pradesh".

Banerjee, the West Bengal chief minister, who defeated the BJP in the high-octane assembly polls in her state last year, said, "If Yogi (Adityanath) Ji comes to power, he will eat you up politically as well as economically." "He does not know anything and hence he is going (away). Let him go. A person, who wants to go should be allowed to go."

She egged on the people to defeat the BJP without paying heed to the caste equation. "I understand elections. I have been a seven-time MP and three-time chief minister. I also know India. This time, division of votes is not going to happen in Uttar Pradesh.

"The BJP had tried it very much in Bengal but it boiled down to one-on-one (contest between the TMC and BJP). Here also, it is going to be a head-on fight, and Akhilesh Ji is going to emerge victorious. The SP will win and it will be history," Banerjee said.

She also said that every caste is a "pride" for her and that her heart cries for the poor. The TMC has not fielded any candidate in Uttar Pradesh and is supporting Samajwadi Party in the high-octane battle in the politically crucial state. During the West Bengal Assembly elections in 2021, the SP had extended its support to the Mamata Banerjee-led party

Akhilesh Yadav shares a very cordial relationship with Mamata Banerjee and had even attended the grand opposition meeting hosted by the TMC supremo in January 2019.