Mamata Banerjee Expected To Visit Varanasi Next Month Amid Speculations Of Her Support To SP

Dates for her visit have not been finalised yet. She will most probably visit Varanasi around the second week of January.

Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee | File Image

New Delhi: Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee is likely to visit Varanasi in January amid indication that TMC will support Samajwadi Party in the upcoming UP elections, reported PTI.

Lalitesh Tripathi, who recently joined TMC, said, “Didi has already said in Delhi that if Akhilesh Yadav needs our help, we are ready to extend help. The gesture of senior SP leader Jaya Bachchan seeking votes for the TMC during the West Bengal Assembly elections will be reciprocated in Uttar Pradesh."

Tripathi said that dates for the visit have not been finalised yet. She will most probably visit Varanasi around the second week of January. "The TMC is holding meetings and mulling on how to strengthen itself in Uttar Pradesh. As far as party chief Mamata Banerjee's visit to Varanasi is concerned, we have not finalised the dates yet. We were planning to organise her visit in December, but owing to her previous engagements, we could not get the dates," he said. 

TMC’s immediate focus is not Uttar Pradesh, said Tripathi adding that for the Trinamool Congress, the immediate concern were states like Goa and Tripura. 

On being asked whether Mamata was visiting Varanasi to send across a message to Prime Minister Narendra Modi as it is his constituency, Tripathi said that it was not the reason.

According to the initial roadmap of the TMC, the party's Purvanchal unit office was to be based in Varanasi, and Mamata ji wanted to have a darshan (of temples)," he said.

Samajwadi Party’s National Vice-President Kiranmoy Nanda said, “We welcome the gesture (of offering support) of Didi. We want to defeat the BJP, and Didi also wants to defeat the BJP. If Didi supports us, we are happy, and we welcome it."