Mission 2024: Akhilesh Yadav meets Mamata Banerjee, hints at new front minus Congress

Samajwadi Party supremo Akhilesh Yadav on Friday met West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee at her Kolkata residence and said that a new front or alliance excluding Congress will come up ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha election.

"You may call it a front, gathbandhan or an alliance, but something will emerge in some form ahead of the election as everyone wants parivartan," Akhilesh Yadav said.

Yadav, the former chief minister of Uttar Pradesh, was accompanied by SP national vice-president Kiranmoy Nanda.

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

Yadav further said that his party will not stand with Congress but support Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress (TMC) to defeat the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

"In Bengal, we are with Mamata didi. Right now, our stand is we want to maintain equidistance from both the BJP and the Congress," the SP supremo said.

On the third front in the 2024 general elections, Yadav said, "I hope that somehow an alliance will be formed before the elections".

The former UP CM criticised the BJP government at the centre on the recent CBI, ED and Income Tax crackdowns on many opposition leaders in the country.

"They have invented a vaccine that keeps ED, CBI and Income Tax Department away from those who join them from some other party. It is called the BJP vaccine," Yadav told reporters.

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 in Uttar Pradesh during the 2022 election in that state. 

The Samajwadi Party is conducting a two-day national executive in Kolkata from March 18 to talk about strategies and policies for the Assembly election in Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh later this year and the Lok Sabha polls in 2024.

The SP national executive will happen in Kolkata after a gap of 11 years. Earlier, it was chaired by the party founder, the late Mulayam Singh Yadav.

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