‘Don’t want to join Congress programmes’: SP throws light on its position on Oppn unity

“At the meeting, the discussion will revolve around the political and economic situation in the country. We will also discuss the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Another aspect that the party’s new leadership will discuss is the strengthening of its organisation,” Nanda told The Indian Express on Tuesday. “Akhilesh Yadav is trying to unite anti-BJP forces in different states. We don’t want to participate in Congress programmes. All of this will be discussed at the meeting in Kolkata and decisions will be made with everyone present.”

In recent days, Akhilesh has criticised the Congress and said his party might field a candidate from Amethi, which had been the pocket borough of the Gandhi family till 2019 when Rahul Gandhi lost to Union Minister Smriti Irani in 2019. Last Saturday, Akhilesh told reporters in Ahmedabad that the BJP was following the same path as the Congress when it came to “getting raids done by central agencies”, and would face the same fate as the Congress. The SP chief was in Gujarat city to attend the wedding of former CM Shankersinh Vaghela’s grandson.

Akhilesh has been visiting different states to attend the events organised by different Opposition parties, putting the SP in the middle of broader efforts to shape an anti-BJP front. While some parties such as the TMC, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), and the Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) do not want the Congress to be a part of any anti-BJP front, parties such as the DMK see the Congress as central to any such alliance.

Akhilesh earlier this month visited Tamil Nadu to attend the birthday celebrations of DMK president and Chief Minister M K Stalin and said “he (Stalin) will rise to national prominence”. In January, Akhilesh visited Telangana to attend an event where CM K Chandrashekar Rao, popularly known as KCR, announced his party’s national plans. There, the SP chief shared the dais with Opposition leaders such as Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal, Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann, Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan, CPI general secretary D Raja, and other BRS leaders.