Recently when the meeting of the INDIA bloc was held in Bihar, the TMC chief reminded Yadav of their earlier conversation and he fulfilled his promise by giving the Bhadohi seat, where the SP is a strong contender, to the TMC, Laliteshpati Tripathi said.”We expected the SP to leave the Mirzapur seat (for TMC), but I was surprised when it gave the Bhadohi Lok Sabha seat to us. I want to carry forward the legacy of Kamalapati Tripathi under the banner of the TMC,” he said.”I had also told Mamata didi of my desire to contest the Assembly elections from Marihan seat in Mirzapur district, but she clearly refused, saying that we will ask for a Lok Sabha seat and not an Assembly seat from Akhilesh Yadav,” he said.Laliteshpati Tripathi had won the Marihan seat in the 2012 Assembly polls on a Congress ticket.Asked about the challenges before him as the TMC does not have an organisation or cadre base in Uttar Pradesh, he said his father Rajeshpati Tripathi had contested the Lok Sabha election twice from Bhadohi in 2004 and 2009 on a Congress ticket.”This area is not new to us,” he said, exuding confidence that he is going to win.He also claimed that the TMC will open its account in Uttar Pradesh by winning the Bhadohi seat, close to Varanasi — the constituency of Prime Minister Narendra Modi from where he will be seeking election for the third term.”There is a strong anti-BJP wave in Bhadohi,” he claimed.Besides, Banerjee and Yadav are likely to address a joint rally in Varanasi and Bhadohi, he asserted.Laliteshpati Tripathi’s father Rajeshpati Tripathi and his grandfather Lokpati Tripathi were ministers in the Uttar Pradesh government.Lokpati Tripathi’s father Kamlapati Tripathi was the former Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh and Railway Minister at the Centre.In a major setback to the Congress in 2021 Laliteshpati Tripathi, considered close to Priyanka Gandhi Vadra resigned from the Congress.At the time of his resignation, he was the vice president of Uttar Pradesh Congress and working in the team of Priyanka Gandhi.Laliteshpati Tripathi had unsuccessfully contested the 2019 parliament elections from Mirzapur.
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