Akhilesh slams Centre for misusing central agencies, to meet Mamata this evening

PTI, Mar 17, 2023, 1:24 PM IST

Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav on Friday slammed the BJP-led government at the Centre for misusing central agencies to ”harass leaders and public representatives of opposition parties”, who pose a threat to the saffron camp.

Yadav, who is in the city to chair his party’s two-day national executive, is scheduled to meet West Bengal Chief Minister and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee on Friday evening.

”The ED, CBI, and Income Tax are political weapons of the BJP. Here in Bengal, the instances are less. In Uttar Pradesh, several of our (SP) leaders, including MLAs, are in jail in false and fabricated cases,” he told reporters after reaching Kolkata airport. ”The BJP sends the ED and CBI to harass those opposition parties which threaten it,” he said.

Samajwadi Party is holding its two-day national executive in Kolkata from March 18 to discuss policies and strategies for the assembly election in Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh later this year and the Lok Sabha poll in 2024, sources in SP said.

Yadav is also scheduled to address the workers meeting at Moulali Yuva Kendra this afternoon.

He will then go to Banerjee’s residence to meet her, the sources said.

The two leaders share a very cordial relationship.

Yadav had lent his party’s support to TMC during the 2021 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.