News Analysis India

Tag: Mamata Delhi visit

  • Mamata’s Delhi trip aimed at wider footprint for TMC

    Express News Service

    KOLKATA:  West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee is scheduled to fly to Delhi on Monday as part of her three-day national capital visit where she is likely to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi. It is also learnt that she may meet leaders of opposition parties to discuss Modi’s announcement of repealing the three contentious farm laws.

    Sources in the state government said Mamata, during her second Delhi visit since she came to power for the third straight term, might meet PM Modi and Union Home minister Ami Shah and place the state’s financial demands.

    “She may place demand for the state’s financial dues from the Centre before Modi. The issue of increasing the BSF’s jurisdiction is likely to be raised in the meeting with Shah. The West Bengal chief minister strongly opposed the Centre’s decision of increasing the jurisdiction to 50 km from 15 km from international border in a few states,” said an official at Nabanna, the state secretariat.

    Political observers in Bengal is seeing Mamata’s Delhi visit after Modi’s announcement on farm laws as significant. It is believed that she may discuss the issue with non-BJP political parties.  “She (Mamata) already declared war against the BJP by contesting in Tripura and Goa. Repealing the three farm laws is BJP’s massive face-loss despite the party’s thumping majority in Lok Sabha.

    The Bengal CM will definitely utilise it to secure her electoral dividend ahead of the upcoming Assembly elections in five states as she is now trying to portray the TMC in the arena of national politics as an anti-BJP force,” said Bishnupriya Dutta Gupta, professor of political science.

    Mamata’s nephew Abhishek Banerjee, who was scheduled to land in Agartala, Tripura, on Sunday which was postponed for a day, will hold a roadshow in the capital of the northeast state shortly. Tripura Police on Sunday arrested TMC’s youth wing president Saayoni Ghosh and booked her under non-bailable charges.

    Trinamool youth leader arrested in TripuraGuwahati: Just days ahead of civic polls in Tripura, Bengali actress and TMC youth leader Saayoni Ghosh was arrested by Tripura Police on Sunday. She was booked under various IPC sections, including that for attempt to murder. The incident comes on the eve of Abhishek Banerjee’s road show in state capital Agartala.

  • West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee​ leaves for Delhi on five-day visit; will meet opposition leaders

    By PTI
    KOLKATA: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday left for Delhi on a five-day visit, where she is slated to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi and several front-ranking opposition leaders.

    The Trinamool Congress supremo, who apparently seeks to take up a larger role in national politics prior to the 2024 Lok Sabha election, is visiting Delhi for the first time after leading her party to power in West Bengal for the third time in a row.

    The BJP’s West Bengal unit alleged that Banerjee wants to be away from the state for a few days as she is facing criticism over the fake COVID vaccination scandal, post-poll violence and other issues. Her efforts to unite opposition parties will not succeed, state BJP president Dilip Ghosh claimed.

    After attending a special state cabinet meeting, the chief minister left for the national capital. She did not talk to newspersons at the Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport in Kolkata.

    Banerjee told reporters earlier that the PM has given time to her for a meeting later this week while she would also like to call on President Ram Nath Kovind. However, she had refused to disclose details of her proposed meeting with Modi.

    TMC sources said that during her visit from July 26-30, she may also go to Parliament where the monsoon session is in progress. The BJP state president told reporters that Banerjee is currently facing criticism from various quarters over issues such as the dubious vaccination scandal, fake IAS-IPS officers and post-poll violence.

    “The state government is bankrupt and she doesn’t know how to foot the bills. She wants to get some relief from all these pressures for some days. She also wants to meet the PM to seek financial help,” Ghosh told reporters.

    He claimed that any effort by Banerjee to stitch a unified front of opposition parties will not succeed. “In 2019, she had invited several opposition leaders to Kolkata but Modi came back to power with a thumping majority in the Lok Sabha polls,” Ghosh said.