JOIN USMamata to meet Modi first time after Centre-State slugfest over West Bengal Chief Secretary
Trinamool Congress supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi on Tuesday, two months after the last encounter between the two at the Kalaikunda Air Force Station triggered a political slugfest between the Centre and the State Government.
Banerjee, who arrived in New Delhi, will meet Modi at the residence of the Prime Minister on Tuesday. She is expected to urge the Prime Minister to ensure expeditious and uninterrupted supply of adequate number of doses of Covid-19 vaccines to West Bengal, in addition to demanding more funds from the Union Government for the state.
This is Banerjee’s first visit to the New Delhi after she led the Trinamool Congress to win the assembly elections in West Bengal in March-April this year – trouncing the Bharatiya Janata Party, despite its aggressive campaigning spearheaded by the Prime Minister and the Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
Banerjee and Modi had personally attacked each other while campaigning for their respective parties during the elections in West Bengal.
Just a few weeks after she took over as the Chief Minister for the third consecutive term, Banerjee briefly met Modi at the Kalaikunda Air Force Station in West Bengal on May 28 during the Prime Minister’s visit to assess the loss and damages caused by the cyclone Yaas in the State.
She had handed over a memorandum to the Prime Minister detailing the State Government’s assessment about the loss and the assistance it expected from the Centre, but did not attend the meeting chaired by him and instead left to continue her own tour to the affected areas. She was accompanied by the then Chief Secretary of the State, Alapan Bandopadhyay, who had also left with the Chief Minister.
The Modi Government had reacted by recalling Bandopadhyay, an Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer, to the Centre. The State Government, however, did not release him. As the Centre-State conflict escalated, Bandopadhyay resigned from government service and Banerjee reappointed him as her advisor.