Mamata Banerjee has repeatedly urged the Congress to drop its solo fight. (FILE)
Mamata Banerjee, travelling to Uttar Pradesh to campaign for Akhilesh Yadav today, said the Congress should support the Samajwadi Party in the UP polls, since "milega kuchh nahin (they won't win)". The Bengal Chief Minister said her party had tried to persuade the Congress but it didn't listen.
"Milega kuchh nahin toh kisi ka vote kaatne ki jaroorat nahin hain (they won't win, so why eat into someone else's votes?)" Mamata Banerjee told reporters at the Kolkata airport, from where she flew to Lucknow.
"We tried but they didn't listen. Akhilesh Yadav is putting his heart into the election. If every community, every voter is with him, then he has a chance of winning," she said.
Her words come at a time there is new friction between her Trinamool and the Congress over the Goa election. The Trinamool says its leadership reached out to Congress chief Sonia Gandhi for an alliance but got no response. The Congress called the Trinamool an "untrustworthy ally" that wanted to grow at its expense.
The Trinamool Congress chief has repeatedly urged the Congress to drop its solo fight in the interest of opposition unity.
"I feel sad to see that the Congress is fighting the election in favour of the BJP in Meghalaya and Chandigarh. We want all anti-BJP fronts to come together. But if someone thinks otherwise and remains arrogant, then we have to choose our own path. Regional parties must come together to defeat the BJP," she said last week.
Ms Banerjee is expected to address a press conference with Akhilesh Yadav tomorrow before she sets out to seek votes for him.
Akhilesh Yadav hopes to put up a tough challenge versus the ruling BJP in Uttar Pradesh, where seven-phase voting starts on Thursday. The results will be declared on March 10.
Priyanka Gandhi Vadra is leading the Congress campaign in UP.
The Bengal Chief Minister campaigned for Mr Yadav even in 2017, when the BJP swept to power after defeating the Samajwadi Party.
Last year, when she was fighting the BJP in the Bengal election, Samajwadi Party MP Jaya Bachchan campaigned for her.
Ms Banerjee has said that her Trinamool Congress will not contest in the UP election but may put up candidates in the state for the 2024 national election.