West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee met with leader of the opposition Suvendu Adhikari on Friday. This is reportedly their first meeting since her former aide quit the Trinamool Congress and joined the BJP ahead of the 2021 state assembly election.
Reports suggest Banerjee invited Adhikari to her chamber in the state assembly. MLAs Agnimitra Paul, Ashok Kumar Lahiri and Manoj Tigga accompanied Adhikari. The meeting of two leaders came ahead of the inauguration of the platinum jubilee memorial building on the assembly campus on Friday.
“I had a three-four minute’s long courtesy meeting with CM Mamata Banerjee today… Contesting from Nandigram was not a personal fight against Mamata (Banerjee) Ji, but a political and ideological fight,” Adhikari was saying.
After the meeting, Banerjee said, “The person I treated as my younger brother is today saying the government in Bengal has become ‘of the party, by the party and for the party’ and what if I say the Centre has become a government of the agency, by the agency and for the agency?”
On Wednesday, Adhikari skipped CV Ananda Bose’s oath-taking ceremony over faulty seat arrangements and criticised Banerjee. The Bengal BJP leader made it clear in a series of tweets right before the oath-taking ceremony that he would not attend it as he was made to sit next to MLAs Krishna Kalyani and Biswajit Das. They are the two MLAs who were elected on the BJP tickets but later defected to the ruling TMC.
Talking to the media after skipping the oath-taking ceremony, the BJP Nandigram MLA said, “To print a postcard also, CM’s permission is needed in Nabanna (WB State secretariat). Company’s owner (WB CM) decided the guest list and seating arrangement for the Governor’s oath-taking ceremony. Only two MLAs who are officially with the BJP but currently with the TMC were invited.”
Speaking on Banerjee’s invitation to the Opposition for the oath ceremony of the governor, the CM said, “We invited you for the governor’s oath but you all didn’t come. In fact, Left leader Biman Bose attended the ceremony, I am thankful to him.
