UP 2022 Assembly polls: Ex-Congress leaders join TMC

“If they invite me then I will go to Benaras to offer puja. I will go to Uttar Pradesh after Chhath Puja. Abhishek [Banerjee] will also go there,” she added.

Rajeshpati is a former MLC while Laliteshpati Tripathi is a former UP Congress vice-president and an ex-MLA. The two said that the TMC chairperson had the credibility and the image to fight the BJP in UP.

Banerjee told reporters, “People’s support for the TMC is increasing. Today, two Congress leaders have joined. I am grateful to them. We are now a national party. We have defeated the BJP in Bengal. We can defeat them in other places as well.”

The TMC chief alleged that her party was prevented from organising political programmes in Tripura and Goa. She said, “We are not allowed to hold our programmes in Tripura. Now, we have been stopped from holding our scheduled programmes in Goa. We had already taken permission for the same. Today, our MPs had to organise the programme on a
footpath. This is the state of affairs in other states.”

Responding to the Tripathis joining the TMC, state Congress president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said, “Their ancestors had been Congress leaders. Both of them are descendants of Congress leaders. They have no influence. Besides what will TMC gain by taking two to three leaders from Congress. What is Mamata Banerjee trying to do? Is she strengthening the BJP by breaking the Congress?”