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West Bengal name change, central funds on agenda as Mamata set to meet Modi

West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee will meet PM Modi in New Delhi Wednesday. They last met during the May 2018 convocation ceremony for Visva-Bharati University.

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Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Prime Minister Narendra Modi will meet in New Delhi Wednesday, their first meeting in 15 months.

The leaders last met during the May 2018 convocation ceremony for Visva-Bharati University. Since then, Banerjee has skipped all meetings chaired by the Prime Minister, even refusing to talk to him over the phone when the PMO tried to reach her in the wake of Cyclone Fani earlier this year. 

Talking to reporters Tuesday at the airport here, Banerjee said the meeting was scheduled for 4.30 pm, calling it a “courtesy call” and her “constitutional duty”. 

“I go to New Delhi very rarely. This is routine work. This time I am going to talk about funds that are due to West Bengal. I will also highlight issues like change of West Bengal’s name,” she was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.

“I will also talk about matters like merger of public sector banks, issues with Air India, BSNL, Railways, where there are several problems. They (employees of these organisations) cannot go anywhere and come to us,” Banerjee said.

Banerjee, one of the harshest critics of the BJP and Modi, had earlier greeted the PM on his 69th birthday.


Also read: Mamata says 10 lakh people called her helpline, but here’s how many actually got help


‘No link to Rajeev Kumar episode’

A senior official in the chief minister’s office told The Print that an appointment with the PM was sought at least 10 days ago, and rubbished speculation linking the chief minister’s visit to the legal tussle going on between the CBI and former Kolkata Police commissioner Rajeev Kumar.

Kumar, who is being sought for his alleged involvement in derailing the Saradha scam probe, is said to be untraceable.

“The CM is likely to raise issues like the BJP’s repeated claims to implement the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Bengal, central government cutting funds for social sector schemes, and the crisis looming large over the East-West Metro project,” the official added. 

“But her meeting has no direct link with the Rajeev Kumar case. The timing is coincidence,” said the senior official. 

Shunning Modi schemes

Significantly, the Banerjee government has not implemented many of the pet schemes of PM Modi, including PM Kisan and Ayushman Bharat. Her government has not brought into force the new Motor Vehicles Act, and moved a resolution against the NRC in the state assembly. 

In June, she refused  to attend a meeting of political party chiefs convened by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Delhi to discuss the issue of “one country, one election”.  

The same month, she skipped a Niti Aayog meeting called by PM Modi, calling the thinktank “powerless” and its meetings “fruitless”.  

A senior leader in the party said Banerjee might also meet interim Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal while in Delhi.


Also read: Why Nitish, Mamata, Uddhav and Kamal Haasan need Prashant Kishor


 

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2 COMMENTS

  1. 1. Smt Mamata Banerjee, chief minister of West Bengal (WB), is definitely entitled to criticize PM Narendra Modi and NDA government. However we cannot overlook fact that till today she has made every effort to protect her party’s leaders who are allegedly involved in Saradha Chit fund scam. 2. Is it not true that Trinamool Congress (TC) has been battered and very badly shaken by BJP very recently in Lok Sabha poll? 3. It is absolutely clear that political future of chief minister & Trinamool Congress’ head Smt Mamata Banerjee as also of her party is uncertain. 4. She has forgotten that rising popularity of BJP in WB is not just due to BJP’s organizational efforts; it is also because Smt Banerjee has forgotten why the citizen-voters of West Bengal moved away from the Leftists to give power to her party. 5. Let us not forget that defeat of the Leftists in WB was certainly not because of any change in ideological preferences of voters. Perhaps at that time (in 2011) Smt Banerjee could convince voters that the Left parties have failed to ensure economic development of WB and hence the left parties must be ousted from power. She succeeded in throwing the Leftists out of power. However, fact is that Smt Banerjee, as chief minister of WB, has miserably failed to bring new industrial investments to WB; not many new job opportunities have been created. Instead of doing something for economic progress of WB, to retain her power she started banking on minority voters, which has proved to be a suicidal step. 6. Question is this: is Smt Banerjee ready for a critical self-examination and an unbiased assessment of her political fortunes in West Bengal?

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