Akhilesh Yadav slams BJP for giving tickets to turncoats, meeting with Nitish Kumar scheduled today

In a bid to unite Opposition parties against the BJP ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, Nitish Kumar is set to meet Akhilesh Yadav today and then call on Mamata Banerjee in Kolkata.

Lucknow:Samajwadi Party (SP) supremo and former Uttar Pradesh (UP) chief minister Akhilesh Yadav on Monday slammed the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for giving tickets to turncoats by depriving their own workers. BJP either does not have any suitable worker to contest elections or it is their tradition to insult their own workers by denying them tickets, Yadav said.

The SP chief's comments came a day after Archana Verma, the SP's mayoral candidate from Shahjahanpur, joined the BJP and hours later was named as BJP's mayoral candidate from the same seat in the upcoming urban local bodies elections. Taking to Twitter, Yadav wrote: "Look at the bankruptcy of the biggest party in the world who claim that they don't even have a candidate to contest elections. This means either BJP does not have any worker or BJP has a tradition of insulting its workers by not giving them tickets. The BJP is embroiled in an internal fight."

Verma, daughter-in-law of four-time MLA Ram Murti Singh, had on Sunday joined the BJP in presence of UP deputy chief minister Brajesh Pathak and other senior party leaders. In a press conference, Pathak claimed that Verma was upset at the atrocities against women during the SP regime and that she responded to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's call for nationalism by joining the BJP. The second phase of elections in Shahjahanpur along with Meerut, Bareilly, Aligarh, Kanpur, Ayodhya and Ghaziabad will be held on May 11. Counting of votes will be on May 13.

Meanwhile, Yadav is set to meet Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar today. The meeting assumes significance in the wake of ongoing efforts to unite the Opposition parties against the BJP before the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Kumar will also meet West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee at Bengal's Nabanna state secretariat later in the day.