Prime Minister Narendra Modi and West Bengal Chief Mamata Banerjee are likely to share the stage during a programme of the Kolkata Port Trust on Sunday in Kolkata in the first such meeting between the leaders since the Lok Sabha polls in May 2019, said PTI sources.
All eyes will be on Modi’s two-day trip to West Bengal starting January 11, during which, there is a possibility of the two leaders meeting each other for talks.
The coming together of the two leaders assumes significance since the Bengal CM has been at the forefront of the protests against Centre’s push to Citizenship Amendment Act and other enumeration schemes like the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and the National Population Register (NPR).
Modi government has accused the opposition, including Mamata, of misleading the people and inciting them to violence purely for vote bank politics. Bengal is among the states that have witnessed the most violence and destruction of property during these protests.
Mamata herself has helmed several anti-CAA protests in the state and was among the first to announce her decision to block its implementation in the state. She was also among the first chief ministers to stall NPR work linked to the Census exercise.
“As far as we know, she (Banerjee) will attend a programme of the Kolkata Port Trust (KoPT) on January 12, where the prime minister would also be present,” a senior TMC leader told PTI.
Mansukh Mandaviya, the Minister of State for Shipping had personally gone to the state secretariat on Friday to invite Banerjee to the 150th anniversary programme of KoPT on Sunday, said the agency.
Banerjee’s decision to boycott a joint meeting of the opposition called by Congress president Sonia Gandhi to discuss the JNU violence, the Citizenship Amendment Act and other contentious policies of the Centre, led to speculations over Mamata’s political strategy. She even distanced herself from the Wednesday Bharat Bandh call by the trade unions and denounced the left for its alleged role in the violence and arson on the day.
The BJP has emerged as TMC’s main challenger in Bengal following its stellar show in the Lok Sabha polls, which had briefly triggered an exodus of TMC leaders to the saffron party. Analysts say Mamata has made a comeback of sorts with victories in recently concluded assembly bypolls.
Modi and Banerjee had last met when the CM visited the national capital in September last year and made a courtesy call to the prime minister.
The opposition CPI(M)-led Left Front has alleged that a possible Mamata-Modi meet shows where the CM stands politically.
“The TMC is actually a Trojan horse in the opposition camp,” CPI (M) legislative party leader Sujan Chakraborty was quoted saying by the PTI.
The BJP had last week taken potshots at Mamata for taking disciplinary action against TMC MLA Samaresh Das and another leader Siddeshwar Bera for attending the inauguration of a local fair with BJP state president Dilip Ghosh while referring to her possible meeting with the Prime Minister in the next few days.
