• Source:JND
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Days after the Samajwadi Party (SP) leader and former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister met Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee and said that his party will maintain distance from both the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Akhilesh on Sunday said that the grand old party has to decide its own role. He said that Congress is a national party and that we are regional parties.

"The Congress is a national party, so it has to decide its role," he said.

Yadav has been hinting that his party would contest the Lok Sabha polls from the Amethi constituency, which is considered a former Gandhi family stronghold. SP has not contested the seat since 1996. In the 2019 elections, the BJP fielded the present Union Minister Smriti Irani against Rahul Gandhi from the Amethi constituency. Irani won the polls, defeating Gandhi in the bastion of the Congress. Akhilesh has also said this for the Rae Bareli seat, which is also another Gandhi family bastion.

"I was recently in Amethi. Our party helps Congress win elections in these seats, but when there is injustice against Samajwadi Party workers, the Congress doesn't say a word. Our leaders say we should fight elections in these seats. So, when the time comes to decide, we will speak to our party workers and decide," he said.

When asked about the opposition's strategy ahead of the Lok Sabha polls next year, Yadav said that the goal is to defeat the BJP and the strategy can't be revealed.

"The goal is to defeat the BJP. Presently efforts are on to forge an opposition front. Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao are making efforts (on their own)," he said.

Yadav also lashed out at the saffron brigade for misusing central agencies against opposition parties. He said that the BJP would be politically finished in days to come as Congress.

"Earlier, the Congress used to misuse the central agencies, and now BJP is doing the same. Congress is now finished. The BJP, too, will meet a similar fate," he told a press conference here.