2019 LS polls: WB CM Mamata Banerjee welcomes SP-BSP alliance in UP

Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee Saturday welcomed the alliance formed between SP-BSP for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. "I welcome the alliance of the SP and the BSP for the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections," Banerjee tweeted. The Trinamool Congress supremo, who has been a vociferous critique of the BJP, has been touring the country over the last one year trying to build an opposition alliance to take on the BJP in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections. Banerjee had earlier suggested that an SP-BSP alliance in Uttar Pradesh would wipe out the BJP from the crucial North Indian state, that sends 80 MPs to the lower house of the Parliament. BSP chief Mayawati and Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav Saturday, in Lucknow, announced their alliance in Uttar Pradesh for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, sharing 38 seats each out of the state's 80 parliamentary constituencies. The parties kept the Congress out of the alliance, but said they will not field candidates in Amethi and Rae Bareli, represented by Congress president Rahul Gandhi and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi.