Political slugfest begun in Bengal ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Friday visit to Kolkata with the Left and Congress rekindling the “setting” theory between the BJP and Mamata Banerjee.
This, after the Bengal Chief Minister — who has more often than not skipped invitations to attend Prime Ministerial meetings in Delhi — almost volunteered to attend his programme on Friday.
The Chief Minister had on Wednesday told a delegation of Port authorities that she would attend the Prime Minister’s programmes in Kolkata.
Modi during his one day visit of Kolkata would unravel a slew ofprojects worth more than `7,000 crore besides flagging off eastern India’s first semi-high speed Bande Bharat train from Howrah to New Jalpaiguri. He is also likely to inaugurate the Taratala-Joka metro railway service.
Referring to an expected meeting between the two leaders CPI(M)central committee member Sujan Chakrabarty said, “Mamata Banerjee’s politics is clear … the Chief Minister who had skipped most Niti Ayog meetings, avoided most of the meetings chaired by the Prime Ministerin Delhi … launched personal attacks against him from most public rallies is today volunteering to attend his programme even before receiving the formal invitation … kuch to hai (it smells rat) … if this is not a setting then what is.”
Reminding how Banerjee, who earlier praised Atal Behari Vajpayee and LK Advani but cursed Modi the Left leader said, “today she is praisingModi (saying the Prime Minister is good and Home Minister is bad) but attacking Amit Shah for the ED-CBI actions in Bengal.”
Pradesh Congress president Adhir Chowdhury too alleged a new era of settings between the BJP and the TMC saying “considering the wide array of scams that her Government has committed in every field it has touched, Mamata Banerjee will not be able to continue in power for a single day without the tacit blessings of the Central Government.”
With a plethora of scams — like the ones involving school service srecruitment, cattle smuggling, Prime Minister Awas Yojna and MNREGAschemes — exploding in the face of her Government sending a number of senior leaders including ministers and MLAs to jail, Banerjee has been forced to tone down her anti-Modi rhetoric during the past several months, the Left and Congress leadership say.
The “latest Modi-Mamata setting is collateral to her changing politicsof saving her own skin,” CPI(M) State secretary Md Salim said.
TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh however refuted the allegations saying”Mamata Banerjee will meet the Prime Minister not as a Trinamool leader but the Chief Minister of the State.” Meanwhile, Government sources detailed Modi’s engagements for Friday whence he would flag off the Bande Bharat Express and a portion of southern Kolkata metro railway service besides laying the foundation stone of a multiple other projects.
He will lay the foundation stone of the redevelopment of New Jalpaiguri Railway station apart from inaugurating Dr Syama PrasadMookerjee National Institute of Water and Sanitation.
According to Eastern Railway sources the Prime Minister will also dedicate four railway projects including — Boinchi-Shaktigarh 3rd Line, Dankuni-Chandanpur 4th Line Project, Nimtita-New Farakka DoubleLine, and Ambari Falakata-New Maynaguri-Gumanihat Doubling Project,developed at a combined cost of more than `2304 crore — to thenation.
Modi is also likely to lay the foundation stone and dedicate to the nation multiple sewerage infrastructure projects for Bengal underNational Mission for Clean Ganga.
Later in the day the Prime Minister will chair the second meeting ofthe National Ganga Council scheduled to be attended by Union Minister for Jal Shakti, other Union Ministers who are members of the councilbesides Chief Ministers of Bengal, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Biharand Jharkhand — the States through which the mighty river
flows.