West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, one of the harshest critics of the Centre government, is likely to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Delhi on Wednesday. According to state secretariat sources, the Trinamool Congress chief will be leaving for New Delhi on Tuesday.
According to reports, the two leaders likely to hold discussions on administrative issues of West Bengal at the meeting, he added.
“An appointment was sought by the chief minister’s office last week for an appointment from Modi’s office for the meeting. It will take place in New Delhi on Wednesday,” the official said.
The proposed meeting assumes significance as it comes at a time when the Trinamool chief is at loggerheads with the BJP over the National Register of Citizens (NRC). She has challenged BJP leaders to touch even one citizen of West Bengal in the name of the NRC.
“We will never allow NRC in Bengal. We will not allow them to divide the people on religious and caste lines. We will not accept the NRC in Assam. They have silenced the people of Assam by using the police and the administration but they cannot silence Bengal,” she said while addressing an anti-NRC rally.
The West Bengal government is opposing it and the saffron party advocating it to throw out infiltrators.
The meeting is also crucial as it comes at a time when several leaders of the ruling Trinamool Congress and former Kolkata police commissioner Rajeev Kumar are under CBI scanner in connection with the Saradha ponzi scam.
The Saradha group of companies had allegedly duped lakhs of people to the tune of Rs 2500 crore, promising higher rates of returns on their investments.
The last time the two leaders had met was at the convocation ceremony at Visva Bharati University held in Shantiniketan on May 25, 2018.