Bharatiya Janata Party leader and Union Minister Smriti Irani alleged that West Bengal Chief Minister Mamta Banerjee, who had sent Ram Bhakts to jail, had come to Uttar Pradesh to support those who opened fire on Ram devotees.
"This is the same Mamta Banerjee who never left any stone unturned to insult the people of Uttar Pradesh," Irani said while addressing an election meeting in Jewar in Noida on Monday.
Trinamool Congress chief Mamta Banerjee was in Lucknow on Monday and would address a joint press conference with Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav on Tuesday to extend her support to the SP.
Irani said that Mamta Banerjee had objections to the people of Uttar Pradesh wearing saffron clothes, vaccinations and even eating Banarasi paan. "Mamta Banerjee ji, who calls the UP people as goons, should apologise before coming here," she said.
The Union minister asked SP chief Akhilesh Yadav what was his compulsion that Mamta had to be called from West Bengal to seek support?
She said that this had proved that Akhilesh and the SP were standing alone today and people from outside the state had to be called to support them.
She reminded the people that Mamta Banerjee had insulted the civilization, culture and food habits of the people of UP on many occasions and had put people in jail for taking the name of Lord Ram.
Irani said that it was a strange coincidence that those who put Ram bhakts in jail and those who opened fire on the Ram devotees were being seen together today. She said that the assembly election was not only for Jewar Airport or Textile Park but for every daughter and mother who was insecure in the SP rule and did not get respect.
“This election is for every brother who had to give his life to protect his sister,” she said.
West Bengal chief minister and Trinamool Congress president Mamta Banarjee arrived in the sytate capital on Monday. She was received at the airport by SP president Akhilesh Yadav.
SP vice-president Kiranmay Nanda said Mamta Banerjee would campaign for SP in the UP assembly poll. In January Nanda had gone to Kolkata and held a meeting with Banerjee and persuaded her to campaign in UP elections.
"The Trinamool Congress will contest only one seat in Uttar Pradesh and will support SP in the fight against the Bharatiya Janata Party. Mamta Banerjee will hold virtual campaigns along with SP president Akhilesh Yadav in Lucknow and Varanasi,” Nanda said.
"She will visit Varanasi for a virtual meeting," Nanda said and noted that most of the campaigns were being held virtually due to Covid restrictions.
Akhilesh Yadav shares a very cordial relationship with Mamta Banerjee and had attended the grand opposition meeting hosted by the TMC supremo in January 2019. One of the longest-serving fisheries ministers of West Bengal during the Left Front regime, Nanda had merged his party, the West Bengal Socialist Party, with Samajwadi Party in 2010.