Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav said on Saturday, January 19, that the coming together of the SP and the BSP has led to a wave of happiness in the country and left a worried BJP to hold meeting after meeting to devise a strategy to win even one seat in Uttar Pradesh.
Speaking at a mega opposition rally in Kolkata, Yadav also sought to give a reply to the BJP questioning the opposition parties about their prime ministerial candidate.
A mega rally was organised by the Trinamool Congress in Kolkata saw the union of the opposition, reminiscent of the meeting which took place in May 2018 after the election of H D Kumaraswamy as chief minister in Karnataka.
Many VIPs attended the mega rally including Mamata Banerjee, Hardik Patel, N Chandrababu Naidu, Omar Abdullah, HD Kumaraswamy, HD Deve Gowda, Akhilesh Yadav and Shatrughan Sinha.
Congress chief Rahul Gandhi wrote an open letter to TMC president and West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, pledging his support to the grand alliance or the Mahagathbandan.
"They ask, who is PM candidate of opposition parties... We say people will decide the PM candidate from our side. But from their side, this name (Narendra Modi) has disappointed the country, who is your another name?" Yadav said.
He said while opposition parties have entered into an alliance with the common people, the BJP has forged ties with the CBI and the ED. The SP chief sat on the dais next to BSP general secretary Satish Chandra Mishra, who was participating in the rally as a representative of his party chief Mayawati.
RLD chief Ajit Singh and his son Jayant Choudhury, who are engaged in discussions with the SP to join their political alliance in UP, were also present on the stage.
Yadav said the people across the country were celebrating the arrival of the New Year and this happiness will increase manifold when they will have a new prime minister.
(Written with inputs from PTI)
