A day after meeting Mamata Banerjee, Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav has expressed confidence of an opposition alliance taking shape in the coming days, saying regional parties will be important in the fight against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. Will play a role

However, on the role of the Congress in this proposed opposition front, Yadav said that it is for the Congress to decide. He also said that the Congress is a national party and we are a regional party.

He said that 'efforts are on to form an opposition alliance or front.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao (on their part) are making efforts.

I am sure that in the coming days, an opposition alliance will take shape, which will fight against the BJP." Asked if he was treating the Congress and the BJP as the same, the SP chief said regional parties in different states were different. There are parties which are fighting with the saffron camp.

"Congress is non-existent in many states as compared to BJP, but regional parties are fighting with all their might against the saffron camp and I hope they will be successful," he said when pointed out that the JD(U). When regional parties like ), RJD and DMK wanted to include Congress in the opposition alliance, Yadav said that they already have an alliance with Congress.

He said, "It is a question of a big fight and the Congress itself will decide its role in this fight."

Who will be the face of the opposition camp in the next Lok Sabha elections?

On this question, Yadav said that it will be decided after the elections and it is not an "appropriate question" right now. Without naming Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he said, "You are talking about face.

What about the faces (of the BJP) in 2014 and 2019, who made false promises to win elections?'' The SP chief claimed that none of the promises made by the BJP in 2014 and 2019 were fulfilled.

Asked whether his party would contest the Rae Bareli and Amethi Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh, which are considered Congress strongholds.

On this, Yadav alleged that SP workers were being killed in Amethi.

He said, “Our workers are being killed in Amethi.

Samajwadi Party workers are asking who will fight for them.

There are socialist workers who are supporting each other.

Congress workers are not coming in our support." Congress leader Sonia Gandhi is the MP from Rae Bareli, while her son and former party president Rahul Gandhi was defeated in Amethi by Union minister Smriti Irani in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

Yadav said that the Samajwadi Party will leave no stone unturned to stop the BJP's march in Uttar Pradesh in the next Lok Sabha elections.

He said, “If the BJP wants to come to power in 2024, it will have to win in Uttar Pradesh.

We will ensure that BJP loses in Uttar Pradesh as well as in the country.

In Uttar Pradesh, we will fight together with our existing allies.” The SP and the Congress had joined hands in the 2017 assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, but lost to the BJP.

In the Lok Sabha elections held two years later, the Congress party was kept out of the SP-BSP alliance in the state.

read this also- 

• "The journey was long...": Rahul Gandhi told the Delhi Police when he came home, Congress leaders told- "...harassment"

• While running away from the Punjab Police, Amritpal Singh collided with 4 bikes, know what happened so far and how...

• Amid the search for Khalistani leader Amritpal in Punjab, there was a stir in Assam, Air Force was used