Lok Sabha polls: Laliteshpati Tripathi hopes to carry forward Congress veteran Kamlapati's legacy in Bhadohi

Laliteshpati Tripathi had left Congress in 2021 and joined the Trinamool Congress.

Bhadohi: Laliteshpati Tripathi is looking to carry forward the legacy of his great grandfather and veteran Congress leader Kamalapati Tripathi, though on a ticket from the Trinamool Congress (TMC) which has fielded him.

Laliteshpati Tripathi, the joint candidate of the Samajwadi Party, Congress and TMC of the I.N.D.I.A. bloc, told PTI that a strong anti-BJP wave was blowing in Bhadohi, close to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Varanasi constituency.

Laliteshpati Tripathi left Congress in 2021 and joined the Trinamool Congress. He got the Bhadohi seat as SP president Akhilesh Yadav had promised to keep the parliamentary constituency reserved for the TMC, he said.

BJP's Ramesh Chand Bind won the seat in the 2019 Lok Sabha election defeating the BSP candidate by a slender margin. BSP, which has announced that it will go alone this time, is yet to announce its candidate.

"When didi (Mamata Banerjee) held meetings in Lucknow and Varanasi in support of Akhilesh Yadav during the 2022 Assembly elections, she asked him to make a promise to ensure that the legacy of former Congress working president and Railway Minister Pandit Kamlapati Tripathi is carried forward," Laliteshpati Tripathi told PTI.

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.