Mamata Banerjee’s meeting with the Prime Minister is at 4pm. The meeting is being variously described as a ‘courtesy call’.
Mamata Banerjee, is in Delhi for the first time since her election victory in Bengal, she has several meetings lined up today including three meetings with Congress leaders and the fourth meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
In the next three days, the Bengal CM is also expected to meet Congress president Sonia Gandhi for tea. The date and time for that is not disclosed yet.
Mamata Banerjee’s first meeting today is with Congress leader Kamal Nath at 2 pm. She will then meet with Anand Sharma at 3 pm, and Abhishek Manu Singhvi at 6.30pm.
Her meeting with the Prime Minister is at 4 pm. The meeting is being variously described as a courtesy call. It will be her first meeting with the Prime Minister after the Bengal elections where the two leaders were frequently into a state of quarrelsome disagreement. Ms Banerjee may ask the Prime Minister to ensure the release of central dues to the state as well as vaccines.
The Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav are also expected to call on her.
The Bengal Chief Minister’s meetings with various leaders during this visit are of great significance in the opposition’s attempts to take on the BJP in the 2024 national election.
Also read: “Have Plastered My Phone Camera”: Mamata Banerjee Blasts Modi Government Over Pegasus Row
Mamta Banerjee was named leader of the Trinamool parliamentary party last week though she is not an MP. This new role shows her readiness to play a larger role in national politics beyond the state of Bengal.
On July 2, in a virtual speech to an audience that included Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar and Congress leader P Chidambaram, Mamta Banerjee appealed for unity. She said people would not forgive the opposition parties if they did not bury their differences and unite against the BJP.
The Congress recently tweeted on Mr Banerjee being targeted with the phone snoop spyware. Trinamool MP Derek O’Brien retweeted that with the comment “khela hobe” – which is the Trinamool’s wildly popular assembly election anthem that means ‘game on’.
Trinamool MP Sougata Roy also welcomed the tweet by the Congress party as a gesture of unity. “It should strengthen bonds between opposition parties.”
Prashant Kishor, who managed Mamata Banerjee’s successful campaign, recently met several senior opposition leaders, including Sharad Pawar and the Gandhis.
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