Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Akhilesh Yadav on Thursday (May 7, 2026) called on Trinamool Congress (TMC) chairperson Mamata Banerjee and her nephew Abhishek Banerjee, in Kolkata.

The SP leader reached the Kalighat residence of the former Chief Minister, and was received by Mr. Banerjee. “You fought very well,” Mr. Yadav was heard telling Mr. Banerjee.

Welcoming Mr. Yadav, Ms. Banerjee said, “We have lost.”

“No, no, you have not lost,” Mr. Yadav said in response.

Speaking to media persons after the meeting, Mr. Yadav alleged that the votes for the West Bengal Assembly election had been stolen by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Election Commission of India (ECi), and other agencies.

“We are in this battle with Didi (Mamata Banerjee) because we have to save democracy and the Constitution. If the right to vote is taken away, then what remains of democracy?” Mr. Yadav said. He expressed the hope that after the West Bengal election, people would “take the lesson and not let the BJP capture elections”.

The SP leader called the BJP anti-women, and said that Ms. Banerjee had been targeted because of her gender. “Didi is not a person to be disappointed. She is a person of struggle. The BJP is patriarchal and feudal. That is why Didi has been targeted, because she is a woman,” he said.

The meeting between the leaders of two Opposition parties assumed political significance amid efforts by the Indian National Developmental, Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) bloc to recalibrate their strategies after the elections in several States. The Trinamool chairperson in her first media interaction after the loss had said that she would work to strengthen the INDIA alliance. Election to the Uttar Pradesh Assembly will take place in 2027, where the SP will take on the BJP.

After the meeting, the Trinamool Congress, from its official X handle, shared photographs of the leaders to say, “Some bonds transcend politics and time, growing stronger through every season.”

Mr. Yadav also posted the photographs of the meeting and said: “Didi has always won hearts; that is her eternal victory.”

“Meeting the most powerful and prestigious representative of half the country’s population, meaning women, has today infused the politics of struggle with new energy and new heights,” the SP chief said on social media.

In the recently concluded West Bengal Assembly election, the BJP won 207 seats to secure more than a two-thirds majority in the 294-member West Bengal Legislative Assembly. The TMC, led by Ms. Banerjee, has been reduced to only 80 seats.

Following the loss, several leaders of the Opposition INDIA bloc, including Sonia Gandhi, reached out to Ms. Banerjee. During the election campaign for the recently concluded West Bengal election, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Yadav, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Arvind Kejriwal, and the Chief Minister of Jharkhand Hemant Soren had campaigned for the Trinamool Congress.