Mamata holds closed-door meeting with Akhilesh; says 'will fight unitedly against BJP, won't accept Cong bossing'

Kolkata: The Trinamool Congress and the Samajwadi Party will work unitedly to fight against the BJP nationally, senior SP leader Kiranmoy Nanda said after a meeting between supremos of the two parties, Mamata Banerjee and Akhilesh Yadav, on Friday.

Yadav, Nanda who is an SP national vice-president, and other leaders called on Banerjee at her residence in Kalighat here and they held an hour-long closed-door meeting.

“It has been decided that the TMC and the SP would work unitedly to fight the BJP. Both the parties would also maintain distance from the Congress,” Nanda said after the meeting.

Yadav said that his party is following a policy of maintaining distance from both the BJP and the Congress.

He told reporters that regional parties will chart their course of action in the days to come.

“We share a very cordial relationship with Mamata Banerjee. Naturally, the present political situation of the country was discussed during the meeting,” he said.

When asked about the role of the Congress in the opposition front, Yadav said the grand old party has to decide this on its own.

“Regional parties are competent enough to decide their roles. the Congress has to decide its role. Nobody should take any step which might have any adverse impact (on fighting the BJP),” he said while adding there are several faces in the Opposition camp who can become the Prime Minister.

“In Bengal, we are with Mamata Didi. Right now, our stand is we want to maintain equidistance from both the BJP and the Congress,” he told reporters. “Those who avail the ‘BJP vaccine’ are not bothered by CBI, ED or I-T,” he said, referring to former opposition party leaders against whom cases by central investigation agencies were dropped after they joined the BJP.

The Trinamool Congress shared a tweet posting pictures of both leaders greeting each other.

“Hon’ble President of @samajwadiparty Shri @yadavakhilesh called on our Hon’ble Chairperson Smt @MamataOfficial today, in Kolkata,” the AITC tweeted.

Yadav had lent his party’s support to the TMC during the 2021 West Bengal assembly poll, which was reciprocated by Banerjee when she campaigned for the former Uttar Pradesh chief minister during the 2022 election in that state.