Didi likely to visit Varanasi to support SP

Lucknow, Dec. 5: Trinamool Congress president Mamata Banerjee is expected to visit Varanasi next month amid indication that her party will support Akhilesh Yadav’s Samajwadi Party in the upcoming Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls.” Didi has already said in Delhi that if Akhilesh Yadav needs our help, we are ready to extend help. The gesture of senior SP leader Jaya Bachchan seeking votes for the TMC during the West Bengal Assembly elections will be reciprocated in Uttar Pradesh,” said Laliteshpati Tripathi, who recently joined the TMC.

“The target is the same and we have to leave no stone unturned to ensure that these forces (led by the BJP) are defeated. We are also with SP chief Akhilesh ji in his fight,” Tripathi told PTI on Sunday. He said Banerjee would visit Varanasi probably around the second week of January.

“The TMC is holding meetings and deliberating how to strengthen itself in Uttar Pradesh. As far as party chief Mamata Banerjee’s visit to Varanasi is concerned, we have not finalised the dates. We were planning to organise her visit in December, but owing to her previous engagements, we could not get the dates,” Tripathi said.

Uttar Pradesh is not the immediate focus of the TMC, he said. For the TMC, Goa and Tripura are the states of immediate focus, Tripathi said, adding his party is not in the fray in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly election due early next year.

Asked whether Banerjee is visiting Varanasi since it is represented by PM Narendra Modi in the Lok Sabha, and possibly because she wants to send across a message, Tripathi said, “No. According to the initial roadmap of the TMC, the party’s Purvanchal unit office was to be based in Varanasi, and Mamata ji wanted to have a darshan (of temples).”

Mr Tripathi also reasoned that she chose Varanasi as the first phase of the joining of new members in the TMC was to be held in the holy city.