'Didi defeated ED, now she will defeat BJP': Akhilesh Yadav meets Mamata Banerjee; extends support ahead of West Bengal polls

NEW DELHI: Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav met West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday and lauded the Trinamool Congress chief countering the Bharatiya Janata Party's "onslaught" in the country. He added that he would extend his support to Mamata in her "fight to save democracy". Speaking on the Enforcement Directorate raids on I-PAC, Yadav took a swipe at the BJP, saying, “Didi (Mamata Banerjee) has defeated the ED; we are certain that she will now defeat the BJP once again.” His remarks came in reference to Banerjee recently storming the probe agency’s raid sites, including the I-PAC office and the residence of its director, Pratik Jain. Yadav also said the BJP had not been able to forget the “pain of losing the pen drive”, a purported reference to the electronic devices the chief minister had emerged with from the agency’s search premises during the raids.The meeting lasted for over 40 minutes and the SP chief was accompanied by Lok Sabha MP and his wife Dimple Yadav.“Only ‘Didi’ (Mamata Banerjee) can counter the onslaught of the BJP in this country,” Yadav told reporter after the meet. “We will extend full support to Mamata Banerjee in her fight to save democracy,” he said."If anyone is competing with the BJP, its CM Mamata Banerjee... The SIR (Special Intensive Revision) they have brought is for West Bengal only... She will become the CM again... They are playing with the secularism of our country," he added.He alleged that “attempts are being made to implement the NRC in the garb of the special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, and harass people,” pointing to Uttar Pradesh’s roll revision exercise, during which nearly 2.89 crore voters were removed from the draft electoral rolls.“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," he said.“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,” he added.This comes amid increasing criticism and 'vote chori" allegations from the opposition regarding the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) in the poll-bound states.