By Express News Service
MUMBAI: Close on the heels of an eventful trip to Delhi, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee arrived in Mumbai for a two-day visit during which she would be meeting NCP president Sharad Pawar and other prominent political leaders.
The West Bengal chief minister has a packed schedule as she would be attending a host of events, including an entrepreneur’s conference.
Coming ahead of the polls in five states including the neighbouring state of Goa, her visit is being linked to the TMC’s growing ambitions of cementing an alliance of like-minded anti-BJP alliance for the 2024 general elections.
On Wednesday, Mamata would be meeting Sharad Pawar who was his senior colleague in the Congress before he parted ways with the party.
NCP chief spokesperson Nawab Malik confirmed the meeting of the two leaders.
“West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will pay a courtesy visit to our party president on Wednesday at 3.00 pm at his residence Silver Oak,” he said.
The TMC supremo, meanwhile, met Maharashtra minister Aaditya Thackeray and Shiv Sena Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut.
But, she was unable to visit Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray who is recuperating from surgery.
Earlier, Mamata said she would invite industrialists to the Bengal Global Business Summit, which will be held in April next year, and urge them to invest in her state. “Bengal is the destination for new industries and investments.”
The business summit will be organised by the Bengal government with Covid safety precautions to attract much-needed investments, she said. “The economy, the country and life cannot come to a standstill out of fear of the pandemic.”
The TMC chief said that she will meet eminent personalities at a programme, which is being organised by poet-lyricist Javed Akhtar and politician -columnist Sudheendra Kulkarni. The two had met Mamata when she was in Delhi on a four-day visit.
She on Tuesday met Shiv Sena leaders Aaditya Thackeray and Sanjay Raut here.
The meeting was seen as an outreach to fellow opposition leaders by the Trinamool Congress supremo.
Banerjee, on a visit to Maharashtra, was scheduled to meet Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray earlier, but as he is unwell, she met his son and minister Aaditya Thackeray, sources said.
Aaditya also gave her a copy of a coffee- table book of his father’s photographs, sources added.
Earlier in the day, Banerjee visited the famous Siddhi Vinayak temple here.
The West Bengal chief minister also paid her respects at the memorial of police constable Tukaram Ombale who died fighting terrorists during the 2008 Mumbai terror attack.
Banerjee is also scheduled to meet NCP president Sharad Pawar.
Her meeting with opposition leaders comes amid a strain in the ties between the TMC and Congress.
After its landslide victory in West Bengal earlier this year, the TMC has inducted several Congress leaders in its fold.
Recently, 12 out of 17 Congress MLAs in Meghalaya defected to the TMC, making it the principal opposition party.
(With PTI Inputs)
