Kolkata: Hundreds of kilometers away from UP, the state’s new political alignment will reflect in full glory here Saturday at the mega anti-BJP rally being organised by Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress. Days after Samajwadi Party’s Akhikesh Yadav and Bahujan Samaj Party’s Mayawati, both former CMs of UP, announced an alliance for their home state to take on BJP unitedly in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls, senior leaders of the two parties will be together on the dais at TMC’s “United Opposition Rally” at iconic Brigade Parade Grounds here. While Yadav would be himself present at the rally, BSP will be represented by senior leader Satish Chandra Mishra.
Ajit Singh and Jayant Choudhary of Rashtriya Lok Dal, another key political force in Western Uttar Pradesh which is also talking to join the SP-BSP alliance, will be present while Congress — against which the new combine has decided not to put any candidate in two key seats of Amethi and Rae Bareli in UP — will be represented by senior leader Mallikarjun Kharge and his party colleague Abhishek Manu Singhvi. Other leaders expected to be present include Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu. Besides, former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda, as also former CMs of Jammu & Kashmir Farooq Abdullah and Omar Abdullah would be there.
Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Tejashwi Yadav, DMK’s MK Stalin and dissident BJP MP Shatrughan Sinha are also among those billed to attend the mega rally. Nationalist Congress Party supremo Sharad Pawar, former Union ministers Yashwant Sinha and Arun Shourie, Patidar leader Hardik Patel, Dalit leader Jignesh Mevani and Jharkhand Vikas Morcha’s Babulal Marandi will be present on the stage alongside the TMC supremo Banerjee. Former Arunachal Pradesh CM Gegong Apang, who quit the BJP Tuesday, is also set to attend the meet.
