Akhilesh says difficult to ignore Mamata, SP feels Rahul can’t lead

‘After coming to Kolkata, I would not have felt good had I not met didi. It was necessary to meet her,’ the Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav said after calling on his West Bengal counterpart Mamata Banerjee here on Wednesday. The 45-minute-long meeting at the Writers’ Buildings was the first interaction between the two chief ministers.

Praising Banerjee he said, ‘I understand the government here is working as per the aspirations of the people. After a lot of struggle, she has come to power. I thank her for finding time for me.’

Banerjee said that she discussed some new schemes being taken up by the Uttar Pradesh government and which the government in West Bengal had also implemented. ‘Many things have been cleared up through interactions, and we will meet again,’ she said. 

While the Samajwadi Party heaped praise on Banerjee, it was not so charitable towards the Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi, who has also received criticism from other quarters in the last few days. On Wednesday Mohan Singh, the party general secretary, slammed Gandhi, saying that he had shown little to prove that he could lead the country.

Singh said in Kolkata, ‘Since the last one and half to two years, the country has faced several challenges. So many issues have come up, but I have not heard any serious opinion on these from [Gandhi].’