West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is likely to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi on Wednesday, sources in state secretariat in Kolkata said on Monday. Mamata will reach New Delhi on Tuesday, the sources said adding the two leaders are likely to hold discussions on administrative issues of West Bengal.
"An appointment was sought by the Chief Minister's office last week from Modi's office for the meeting. It will take place in New Delhi on Wednesday," an official of the Chief Minister’s Office said. The proposed meeting assumes significance as it will be held at a time when relations between Mamata and Modi remain extremely strained with the West Bengal Chief Minister attacking the PM almost every day on a range of issues, including the NRC in Assam.
The likely meeting also comes at a time when several leaders of Trinamool Congress and former Kolkata Police Commissioner Rajeev Kumar are under the Central Bureau of Investigation scanner in connection with the multi-million dollar Saradha chit fund scam. The Saradha group of companies had allegedly duped lakhs of people to the tune of Rs 2500 crore, promising higher rates of returns on their investments. The last time Modi and Mamata had met was at the inauguration of Bangladesh Bhavan and convocation at Visva Bharati University held in Santiniketan on May 25, 2018.
Kumar, a close aide of Mamata and now Additional DG of West Bengal CID, had led a probe set up by Mamata government into the chit fund scam and now faces arrest by CBI after the Calcutta High Court removed the protection against his arrest. While “administrative issues” will come up at Modi-Mamata meeting on Wednesday, speculations are also rife about the possibility of the two Indian leaders discussing Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s forthcoming visit to Delhi early next month among other issues.
The question doing the rounds in political circles in Delhi is: will Modi and Mamata discuss any specific aspect of India-Bangladesh ties in the light of Hasina’s visit? Mamata has been resisting the signing of the Teesta river water-sharing issue since September, 2011 and the Indian government maintains that a deal on Teesta is possible only after taking West Bengal government on board.
During Hasina’s previous visit to Delhi in April 2017, Modi had , at a joint media appearance with her, said that the Teesta deal would happen during his tenure as the PM. Modi will be in the US for almost a week to address the UN General Assembly on September 27 and before that sharing the dais with President Donald Trump at an event in Texas where the Indian PM will address the Indian-Americans on September 22. Modi is also expected to meet Hasina on the margins of the UN General Assembly session. Not much time will be left between Modi’s return from his foreign tour and Hasina’s visit which is likely to begin on October 3.