Mamata will meet PM today to talk growth, Prez polls

New Delhi/Kolkata: West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee will meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday to discuss issues related to West Bengal’s development. Sources said the Trinamul Congress supremo was also likely to discuss the coming presidential elections in July, for which the Opposition is trying to put up a consensus candidate, with Mr Modi.

Sources said both factions of the AIADMK have pledged support to the NDA presidential candidate. With this, the NDA is closer to securing the numbers to be able to get its candidate elected as President.

The Opposition parties are due to go into a huddle at the Parliament House complex on Friday to discuss a consensus candidate for President, Before that meeting, Ms Banerjee will meet Congress president Sonia Gandhi.

The Opposition parties are considering the names of former West Bengal governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi, former Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar, NCP supremo Sharad Pawar and JD(U) leader Sharad Yadav in this regard. Several parties also support the re-election of President Pranab Mukherjee.

Ms Banerjee, who flew to New Delhi from Kolkata on Wednesday, said she would meet the Prime Minister to discuss projects for West Bengal, including the pending Deocha-Panchami coal block, the Ganga Action Plan and the need for more Central funds for several projects. She will meet Mr Modi at 3.30 pm Thursday. This will be their second meeting in the past two and a half months.

The West Bengal CM will meet Mrs Gandhi at 1 pm on Friday. The West Bengal Congress unit has expressed its unhappiness at this bonhomie between the two. State Congress chief Adhir Chowdhury even shot off a letter to the Congress president alleging how party workers are the targets of atrocities by the Trinamul Congress.

In another significant development, the West Bengal BJP has said it will organise a law-violation programme — “Lalbazar Abhijan” — in Kolkata on Thursday, the day Ms Banerjee will meet Mr Modi. State BJP chief Dilip Ghosh, however, said there were several past instances of the two meeting on development issues. He said the BJP’s movement against the Trinamul government will remain unaffected.

Meanwhile, both AIADMK factions have pledged their support to the NDA presidential candidate. While chief minister Edapaddi Palaniswami, who heads the larger faction, is understood to have pledged his support during a meeting with the PM on Wednesday, former CM O. Panneerselvam, who leads the other faction, met Mr Modi last week and offered support to the NDA’s candidate for the presidential elections in July.

The ruling NDA will need help from friendly parties like the AIADMK to secure the 51 per cent in the electoral college needed to win. The NDA has about 48.5 per cent as of now. Regional parties like the AIADMK, YSR Congress, Telangana Rashtra Samiti and Biju Janata Dal together have about 12 per cent, which the BJP hopes to add. YSR Congress leader Jaganmohan Reddy had also recently met the Prime Minister and offered his party’s support.