West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee met with leader of the opposition Suvendu Adhikari on Friday, for the time 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,” news agency ANI quoted Adhikari as 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 snd for the agency?”
On Wednesday, Adhikari skipped CV Ananda Bose‘s oath-taking ceremony over faulty seat arrangements and criticised Banerjee. In a series of tweets right before the oath-taking ceremony, the Bengal BJP leader made it clear that he would not attend it as he was made to sit next to MLAs Krishna Kalyani and Biswajit Das, who were elected on the BJP tickets but later defected to the ruling TMC.
alking 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 guest list and seating arrangement for 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.”
She added that during the Left regime, the education department was turned into its party office. “During the Left regime, they turned the department of education into their party office. It’s difficult for the education minister to work. Why will you not talk about development?” she said.
