Rahul Gandhi skips Mamata anti-BJP mega rally, Mallikarjun Kharge to attend
Kolkata, Jan 17 (IBNS): At a time when political parties are trying to stitch an alliance before the upcoming Lok Sabha polls, Congress president Rahul Gandhi is skipping the anti-BJP mega rally of Mamata Banerjee reportedly to respect the wishes of his party supporters in Bengal. However, he is sending senior leader Mallikarjun Kharge is attend the same on Saturday.
The Left parties will also not attend the rally of Mamata Banerjee.
Congress President Rahul Gandhi is not going to attend it, TMC supremo and West Bengal chief Mamata Banerjee confirmed to Times Now.
As per the news channel report, this development comes after reports suggested that the West Bengal unit of Congress informed Gandhi that they were not in favour of the Congress President attending the event. Reports said the West Bengal Congress is happy that neither Rahul nor Sonia Gandhi will attend the rally.
The state leadership is believed to have told the party chief that Congress workers were ready to fight the upcoming Lok Sabha elections alone, and hence suggested that Gandhi should not attend the rally.
Several other political leaders are expected to attend the rally.
According to reports, leaders of Telugu Desam Party (TDP), the Janata Dal (Secular), the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), the People's Democratic Party (PDP), and the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) are likely to attend the event. Akhilesh Yadav of Samajwadi Party is also likely to attend the rally.
Speaking to Times Now, CM Banerjee said that she was excited about the upcoming rally.
She said: "Such a major meeting of opposition parties has not happened in recent times."
TMC and several other parties have been trying to form an opposition front ahead of the Lok Sabha polls to fight against the Bharatiya Janata Party.
BSP-SP alliance:
The Bahujan Samaj Party and the Samajwadi Party announced that tyey have decided to form an alliance for the general polls last week.
Out of 80 Lok Sabha seats, the SP and BSP will fight in 38 seats each. Both the parties will not field any candidate in Amethi and Rae Bareli seats, which are traditionally the Congress' strongholds.
The SP and BSP will also not fight in two other seats, which have been left out for other regional parties.
Why SP and BSP did not go with Congress:
Citing 1996 polls, Mayawati, the former Uttar Pradesh chief minister, clearly stated the Congress does not transfer its votes to allies.
The SP had experienced the same during the 2017 state polls, she added.
Congress to go solo:
The Congress has already announced it will fight in all 80 parliamentary seats of Uttar Pradesh.
Uttering no bitter word against Akhilesh-Mayawati duo, Congress chief Rahul on Saturday said: "I respect Akhilesh Yadav and Mayawati's decision. It is a political decision. They must have taken the decision with a clear thought."
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