Mamata Banerjee to campaign for Samajwadi Party in UP poll: Nanda

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will campaign for Samajwadi Party in the upcoming Uttar Pradesh Assembly poll and her party - the Trinamool Congress will not contest the election in that state, SP vice-president Kiranmay Nanda said on Tuesday.

Nanda, who returned from poll bound Uttar Pradesh on Monday, held an hour-long meeting with Banerjee at her residence on the issue.

"The Trinamool Congress will not contest in Uttar Pradesh and will support Samajwadi Party in the fight against the BJP. Mamata Banerjee will hold virtual campaigns along with SP president Akhilesh Yadav in Lucknow and Varanasi. She will be in Lucknow on February 8 and attend a virtual campaign. She will then will hold a joint press conference with Akhileshji," Nanda told reporters after the meeting.

Describing Banerjee as one of the "most prominent anti-BJP faces" in the country, he said the TMC supremo will also visit Varanasi in February but the date is yet to be fixed.

"She will visit Varanasi for a virtual meeting," Nanda said and noted that most of the campaigns are being held virtually due to COVID restrictions.

The election to all 403 Assembly seats in Uttar Pradesh will be held in seven phases from February 10 to March 7.

Mamata Banerjee is a strong leader and the way she fought against the BJP and defeated it in the West Bengal Assembly Election in 2021 is a lesson for the entire opposition. Her fight was unprecedented. The entire nation saw the fight she had put up against BJP's juggernaut," he said.

Reacting to the development, West Bengal BJP spokesperson Samik Bhattacharya wondered whether or not the SP supported the violence in the state after the TMC's assembly poll victory.

"The BJP will again return to power in Uttar Pradesh. And we would like to know if the Samajwadi Party supports the post-poll violence that was unleashed by TMC in Bengal? If no, then they should condemn it," he said.

During the high octane West Bengal assembly polls, the Samajwadi Party had decided against contesting in the state and extended its support to the ruling TMC.

Akhilesh Yadav shares a very cordial relationship with Mamata Banerjee and had even attended the grand opposition meeting hosted by the TMC supremo in January 2019.

One of the longest-serving fisheries ministers of West Bengal during the erstwhile Left Front regime, Nanda had merged his party, the West Bengal Socialist Party, with Samajwadi Party in 2010.