TMC and SP to Collaborate in Opposition Against BJP, While Maintaining Distance from Congress

On Friday, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee met with Samajwadi Party Chief Akhilesh Yadav, national vice-president Kironmoy Nanda, and party leader Shivpal Singh Yadav in Kolkata. The meeting was held to discuss the current political situation in the country and to strategize ways to fight against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) nationally. After the hour-long closed-door meeting, senior SP leader Kiranmoy Nanda announced that both parties have decided to work unitedly against the BJP and will maintain distance from the Congress. Yadav added that his party is following a policy of maintaining distance from both the BJP and the Congress, and regional parties will chart their course of action in the days to come. When asked about the role of the Congress in the opposition front, Yadav said that the grand old party has to decide this on its own, and regional parties are competent enough to decide their roles. The Trinamool Congress is yet to come out with any official statement on the meeting except for a tweet sharing pictures of both leaders greeting each other. Yadav had lent his party’s support to the TMC during the 2021 West Bengal assembly poll, which was reciprocated by Banerjee when she campaigned for the former Uttar Pradesh chief minister during the 2022 election in that state.