Her MPs and leaders framed in chit fund scam and the TMC Government facing a clear anti-incumbency trend, coupled with challenges from a surging BJP on a mission to capture power in all States, TMC supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has sought to inch closer to her counterpart Naveen Patnaik.
She could have found no better time than this when the BJD has been facing a challenge from the BJP over victory in 2019 Assembly polls and the saffron party leaders, including Prime Minster Narendra Modi, have made no bones of repeating a UP-like situation in Odisha during their national executive meet in Bhubaneswar. So Banerjee seeks to strike when the iron is hot.
She has tried to highlight not just the territorial proximity but the cultural and historical ties of West Bengal and Odisha, besides her personal link with the Naveen Patnaik, Biju Patnaik and their family.
She also did not forget to invoke how lord Jagarnnath dwells in heart of every Bengali. Despite protests from the BJP youth wing over her comments on beef, the WB Chief Minister had a darshan of the lords at Puri.
Banerjee during her three-day visit did all to be close to the people of Odisha what Prime Minister Narendra Modi and most BJP leaders did by tapping the cultural and religious route during their national executive meeting here. Notably, PM Modi had a darshan of lord lingaraj while over a dozen of Union Ministers and Chief Ministers of BJP-ruled States had a darshan of lord Jagarnnath at Puri.
However, the firebrand leader of Bengal, who is known for her unmatched aggressiveness, lampooned the BJP for playing divisive politics on the very day of her putting her step in Odisha on Wednesday.
She slammed the BJP for disgracing the Hindutya and creating division among the people on lines of caste, religion and region and repeated the same even after meeting Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Thursday.
Though Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik said that Banerjee had a courtesy call and no political negotiation took place between them, the visit of the WB CM gave a clear indication of a political manoeuvring in process among the regional parties to save their forts and thwart the advances of the saffron party.
Banerjee called upon the regional parties to get united at this critical juncture when the BJP has flexed muscle against them. Banerji also stated that the CBI was misused by the Central Government against the TMC leaders and dubbed it as a political vendetta. She visited her two ailing MPs who have been undergoing jail term in a city hospital.
So in a nutshell it can be said that rattled over the CBI crackdown and the BJP’s target over West Bengal, the TMC chief visited the BJD surpremo, who are on the same boat as alleged by the BJP, to seek support for a united fight against the Centre.