On December 17, Mamata Banerjee drove 200 meters with Union Home Minister Amit Shah in his automobile to Nabanna, where they had a 15-minute one-on-one discussion in the chief minister’s office on the 14th floor.
The tense relationship between Mamata and Shah, who sat across a table from one another for the first time since the 2021 Assembly elections, attracted attention to the meeting, which was held in conjunction with the Eastern Zonal Security Council meeting that Shah called.
Although there was no formal statement made about the meeting, the Bengal BJP unit quickly offered an explanation for why Shah met Mamata.
The Nandigram MLA added that there was no need for speculation regarding Shah’s meeting with Mamata, despite some unease over the encounter at a time when the CPM and the Congress suggested a setting between Trinamul and the BJP. The MLA was joined by Bengal BJP chief Sukanta Majumdar and other state leaders.
While Adhir Chowdhury, a Congress MP, claimed Shah and Mamata discussed how to prevent the possibility of a united Opposition against the BJP prior to the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, CPM state secretary Mohammad Salim characterized the meeting as an attempt by Mamata to protect her party colleagues accused in corruption cases from the central agencies.
Several BJP insiders informed this reporter that the closed-door session had been a disappointment for them because it would be challenging to communicate the administrative component of the meeting to the party’s foot soldiers. The CPM has outpaced the BJP in organizing movements against Trinamul, according to information presented to Shah at an internal meeting on December 16 night. The claim was made by former Rajya Sabha member Swapan Dasgupta, MPs Locket Chatterjee, and Khagen Murmu, and
News Mania Desk
