Akhilesh Yadav meets Mamata Banerjee at West Bengal secretariat

Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav on Tuesday (January 27, 2026) met West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, amid the charged political atmosphere in the poll-bound State over the SIR exercise.

Mr. Yadav, who is on a personal trip to Kolkata with wife and Lok Sabha MP Dimple Yadav, arrived at state secretariat ‘Nabanna’ around 1.40 p.m., a senior official said.

“This is a courtesy meeting. The two leaders are holding discussions at the CM’s chamber,” he told PTI.

Mr. Yadav, who is in Kolkata to attend a family function, on Monday (January 26, 2026) hit out at the BJP saying, “Didi (Mamata Banerjee) has defeated the ED; we are certain that she will now defeat the BJP once again.”

The former Uttar Pradesh chief minister comments were in reference to Banerjee recently storming the probe agency’s raid venues of I-PAC office and its director Pratik Jain’s residence.

The BJP has not yet been able to forget the “pain of losing the pen drive”, Mr. Yadav had said, in a purported reference to the electronic devices the CM had come out with from the agency’s search operation premises during the raids.

“Mamata Banerjee speaks of love and brotherhood, while the BJP speaks of divisiveness. The BJP, through SIR, is not trying to enhance its votes; it is trying to slash the votes of opponents.

“We expected a constitutional body like the Election Commission to remain neutral while conducting this exercise. But, our experiences in states like Bengal, Bihar and UP is telling us that this is just a means to reduce votes of BJP’s opponents,” Mr. Yadav had asserted.

Only ‘Didi’ can counter onslaught of BJP in India: Akhilesh

Mr. Yadav met Ms. Banerjee and lauded the TMC supremo for her “courage in countering BJP’s onslaughts”.

The former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister, along with his wife and Lok Sabha MP Dimple Yadav, held a meeting with Ms. Banerjee.

“Only ‘Didi’ (Mamata Banerjee) can counter the onslaught of the BJP in this country,” Mr. Yadav, flanked by the West Bengal Chief Minister, told reporters after the meeting.

“Attempts are being made to implement the NRC in the garb of the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, and harass people,” he alleged, referring to the experience of the roll revision exercise in Uttar Pradesh, where nearly 2.89 crore voters were deleted from the draft rolls.

Mr. Yadav’s meeting with Banerjee lasted around 40 minutes.

“We will extend full support to Mamata Banerjee in her fight to save democracy,” he said.