Express News Service
NEW DELHI/KOLKATA: Trinamool head and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had a rather quiet meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi for 45 minutes here on Friday sparking wild speculation of a rapprochement ahead of the 2024 polls.
This was a different Didi Delhi got to see as there was no post-meeting briefing, no signalling of Opposition unity to fight the BJP.
Ironically, it happened on a day when Congress hit the streets raising pro-people issues like price rise the party Mamata had in the past faulted for sleeping at the wheel of Opposition leadership.
Former Meghalaya governor Tathagata Roy set Twitter afire about the ‘secret setting’. The CPI(M) and Congress echoed him, alleging Mamata’s underhand deal with the BJP.
TMC sources said Mamata took up various issues like MNGREGA dues and GST and submitted a memorandum to the PM, quantifying the total dues at Rs 1,00,968.44 crore.
She is also understood to have taken up raids on her party leaders by Central agencies.
“Remember her recent meeting with Jagdeep Dhankhar? Subsequently, Dhankhar became NDA’s nominee for V-P and the TMC decided to abstain from voting,” said political analyst R K Verma said.
In a memorandum to the prime minister, Banerjee said she had repeatedly sought his intervention for urgent release of funds due to the state on account of the implementation of the rural job scheme MGNREGA, PM Awas Yojana and the PM Gramin Sadak Yojana.
The amount due to the state under these schemes now stood at about Rs 17,996.32 crore, she said.
In her memorandum, Banerjee has tabulated the total amount due to the state under different schemes and benefits.
The amount that is due to the state from the central government as on 31st July, 2022 has been estimated to be around Rs 1,00,968.44 crore.
Banerjee has often accused the BJP-led central government of delaying the payment of Goods and Services Tax (GST) dues to states, especially the ones ruled by opposition parties.
After the meeting, Banerjee directly went to meet President Droupadi Murmu.
Banerjee, who arrived here on a four-day visit on Thursday, is likely to attend a Niti Aayog governing council meeting on August 7 to be chaired by Prime Minister Modi.
She did not attend the meeting last year.
Banerjee’s meeting with the prime minister came close on the heels of the Enforcement Directorate arresting now-removed West Bengal Minister Partha Chatterjee and his aide Arpita Mukherjee and recovering huge cash and jewellery in connection with an alleged school jobs scam.
However, it was not known if the issue was featured in the meeting.
Banerjee’s meeting also holds importance ahead of the August 6 vice-presidential poll, from which her Trinamool Congress party has decided to abstain.
The BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) has fielded former West Bengal governor Jagdeep Dhankhar as its vice-presidential candidate while the opposition parties have nominated Margaret Alva.
The Congress and CPM traded their guns at the Bengal CM, stating that it was an attempt on her part to “manage the BJP” to stop the investigations by central agencies in various graft cases, including a school appointment scam.
The TMC was quick to hit back, maintaining that the allegations were “politically motivated”.
The Prime Minister’s Office shared a picture of the meeting, which lasted about an hour.
Congress claimed that the TMC, as an “agent of the saffron camp”, was on a mission to destroy opposition unity.
“The way TMC had been functioning for the last few months, it is quite clear that it is acting as an agent of the saffron camp. I had said earlier that TMC is the Trojan horse. Now everything is crystal clear. The TMC has got into an understanding with the BJP to protect its members from CBI and ED investigations in various graft cases,” state Congress president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said.
The senior Congress leader mocked the meeting as an arrangement to “manage BJP”.
“We are apprehensive that after this meeting between CM and PM, the ED and other investigating agencies will go slow on several graft cases in Bengal,” he said.
In a similar vein, CPI(M) central committee member Sujan Chakraborty alleged that had it been a meeting for getting the dues of state, officers of various departments of the state government would have been present there with relevant documents.
“There is no reason to think that the meeting was in the interest of the state,” Chakraborty claimed.
“Now, it is clear that both the parties have a covert understanding. We all want to know what prompted Mamata Banerjee to rush to Delhi to meet the prime minister when senior leaders of her party are being arrested in graft cases,” he said.
Banerjee’s meeting with the PM came days after veteran leader Partha Chatterjee was arrested by the ED in connection with its probe into a school recruitment scam.
Chatterjee happened to one of the top leaders of the TMC and a minister of the state during the time of his arrest.
He was later relieved of his ministerial duties and suspended from the party.
The TMC, however, dubbed the allegations by Congress and the CPI(M) as “baseless”.
“What is wrong with the chief minister meeting the prime minister with issues concerning the state? This is how the federal structure works. We don’t need lessons from Congress and the CPI (M) on opposing the BJP and its policies,” TMC leader Santanu Sen said.
Welcoming the development, the state BJP leadership said a chief minister can always meet the prime minister, and not much should be read into it.
“A CM calling on PM is the most natural thing to happen in a federal structure, more so for Mamta Bannerjee who is known for abusing PM in filthiest language. The theory of ‘setting’ propagated by the two rootless wonders- CPM and Congress- is a figment of their imagination (sic),” BJP state president Sukanta Majumdar tweeted.
(With PTI Inputs)
NEW DELHI/KOLKATA: Trinamool head and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had a rather quiet meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi for 45 minutes here on Friday sparking wild speculation of a rapprochement ahead of the 2024 polls.
This was a different Didi Delhi got to see as there was no post-meeting briefing, no signalling of Opposition unity to fight the BJP.
Ironically, it happened on a day when Congress hit the streets raising pro-people issues like price rise the party Mamata had in the past faulted for sleeping at the wheel of Opposition leadership.
Former Meghalaya governor Tathagata Roy set Twitter afire about the ‘secret setting’. The CPI(M) and Congress echoed him, alleging Mamata’s underhand deal with the BJP.
TMC sources said Mamata took up various issues like MNGREGA dues and GST and submitted a memorandum to the PM, quantifying the total dues at Rs 1,00,968.44 crore.
She is also understood to have taken up raids on her party leaders by Central agencies.
“Remember her recent meeting with Jagdeep Dhankhar? Subsequently, Dhankhar became NDA’s nominee for V-P and the TMC decided to abstain from voting,” said political analyst R K Verma said.
In a memorandum to the prime minister, Banerjee said she had repeatedly sought his intervention for urgent release of funds due to the state on account of the implementation of the rural job scheme MGNREGA, PM Awas Yojana and the PM Gramin Sadak Yojana.
The amount due to the state under these schemes now stood at about Rs 17,996.32 crore, she said.
In her memorandum, Banerjee has tabulated the total amount due to the state under different schemes and benefits.
The amount that is due to the state from the central government as on 31st July, 2022 has been estimated to be around Rs 1,00,968.44 crore.
Banerjee has often accused the BJP-led central government of delaying the payment of Goods and Services Tax (GST) dues to states, especially the ones ruled by opposition parties.
After the meeting, Banerjee directly went to meet President Droupadi Murmu.
Banerjee, who arrived here on a four-day visit on Thursday, is likely to attend a Niti Aayog governing council meeting on August 7 to be chaired by Prime Minister Modi.
She did not attend the meeting last year.
Banerjee’s meeting with the prime minister came close on the heels of the Enforcement Directorate arresting now-removed West Bengal Minister Partha Chatterjee and his aide Arpita Mukherjee and recovering huge cash and jewellery in connection with an alleged school jobs scam.
However, it was not known if the issue was featured in the meeting.
Banerjee’s meeting also holds importance ahead of the August 6 vice-presidential poll, from which her Trinamool Congress party has decided to abstain.
The BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) has fielded former West Bengal governor Jagdeep Dhankhar as its vice-presidential candidate while the opposition parties have nominated Margaret Alva.
The Congress and CPM traded their guns at the Bengal CM, stating that it was an attempt on her part to “manage the BJP” to stop the investigations by central agencies in various graft cases, including a school appointment scam.
The TMC was quick to hit back, maintaining that the allegations were “politically motivated”.
The Prime Minister’s Office shared a picture of the meeting, which lasted about an hour.
Congress claimed that the TMC, as an “agent of the saffron camp”, was on a mission to destroy opposition unity.
“The way TMC had been functioning for the last few months, it is quite clear that it is acting as an agent of the saffron camp. I had said earlier that TMC is the Trojan horse. Now everything is crystal clear. The TMC has got into an understanding with the BJP to protect its members from CBI and ED investigations in various graft cases,” state Congress president Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said.
The senior Congress leader mocked the meeting as an arrangement to “manage BJP”.
“We are apprehensive that after this meeting between CM and PM, the ED and other investigating agencies will go slow on several graft cases in Bengal,” he said.
In a similar vein, CPI(M) central committee member Sujan Chakraborty alleged that had it been a meeting for getting the dues of state, officers of various departments of the state government would have been present there with relevant documents.
“There is no reason to think that the meeting was in the interest of the state,” Chakraborty claimed.
“Now, it is clear that both the parties have a covert understanding. We all want to know what prompted Mamata Banerjee to rush to Delhi to meet the prime minister when senior leaders of her party are being arrested in graft cases,” he said.
Banerjee’s meeting with the PM came days after veteran leader Partha Chatterjee was arrested by the ED in connection with its probe into a school recruitment scam.
Chatterjee happened to one of the top leaders of the TMC and a minister of the state during the time of his arrest.
He was later relieved of his ministerial duties and suspended from the party.
The TMC, however, dubbed the allegations by Congress and the CPI(M) as “baseless”.
“What is wrong with the chief minister meeting the prime minister with issues concerning the state? This is how the federal structure works. We don’t need lessons from Congress and the CPI (M) on opposing the BJP and its policies,” TMC leader Santanu Sen said.
Welcoming the development, the state BJP leadership said a chief minister can always meet the prime minister, and not much should be read into it.
“A CM calling on PM is the most natural thing to happen in a federal structure, more so for Mamta Bannerjee who is known for abusing PM in filthiest language. The theory of ‘setting’ propagated by the two rootless wonders- CPM and Congress- is a figment of their imagination (sic),” BJP state president Sukanta Majumdar tweeted.
(With PTI Inputs)
