Mamata may meet PM Modi during Delhi visit as TMC leaders remain under scanner of central agencies

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee may have a separate meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi during her forthcoming visit to Delhi even as probes by the central agencies against the Trinamool Congress’s leaders put herself and her party in a tight spot.

Banerjee is likely to visit New Delhi this week, primarily to attend a meeting of the governing council of the Niti Aayog on August 7. She is expected to arrive a few days before the Niti Aayog conclave and a meeting with the PM is likely to be among her other engagements during her stay in the national capital, sources in the Trinamool Congress said.

Her visit to New Delhi this week coincides with the polling for election of the next Vice-President on August 6. The TMC recently decided to abstain from voting in vice-presidential elections, alleging that it was not consulted when Margaret Alva was picked as the candidate of the Opposition. The party announced its decision just days after Mamata had a courtesy meeting with Assam Chief Minister and BJP leader Himanta Bishwa Sharma and West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar, who had several rounds of clashes with her government in the last few years and was picked up as the BJP-led coalition’s candidate for the office of the Vice-President.

Read | A change in approach by TMC, belated though

Her meeting with Modi is likely to be significant as the TMC just had to suspend the party’s heavyweight leader Partha Chatterjee, who was also a minister in the state government, after the Enforcement Directorate seized almost Rs 50 crore in cash as well as other valuables from properties linked to him and his close aide Arpita Mukherjee over the past few days. The ED joined the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in probing an alleged scam in recruitment of teachers in the government schools in West Bengal. Both Chatterjee and Arpita were arrested by the ED. Banerjee also removed Chatterjee from her Council of Ministers.

Banerjee’s meeting with Modi is likely to be politically significant as several TMC leaders remain on the hook, as the central agencies are probing allegations of corruption against them, including her nephew and the party’s national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee.

Read | Money recovered by Enforcement Directorate does not belong to me: Partha Chatterjee

Modi and Banerjee had a bitter war of words when they led the campaigns of the BJP and the TMC respectively during the assembly Alections in West Bengal in March-April 2021. The TMC, however, had a landslide victory and defeated the BJP’s bid to wrest power in the state.

Soon after Banerjee commenced her third term as chief minister, she had a brief meeting with the prime minister at the Indian Air Force base in Kalaikunda in West Bengal, which triggered a political slugfest between the Centre and the West Bengal government over the state’s then-chief secretary Alapan Bandopadhyay. The BJP criticised Banerjee and the chief secretary for allegedly skipping a meeting the prime minister wanted to hold over damage caused by a cyclone in West Bengal.

But when Banerjee visited New Delhi in July 2021, she signalled her intent to move on, instead of continuing her personal bitterness with Modi. The chief minister had a courtesy meeting with the prime minister at his residence at 7 Lok Kalyan Marg in the national capital to discuss issues related with governance and Centre’s support to the state government. She also had another meeting with the prime minister during her next visit to New Delhi in November 2021, continuing her bid to maintain a working relationship between the Centre and the state government. It was around the same time when the Congress accused the TMC of helping BJP weaken the Opposition with its expansion plan beyond West Bengal.