Bhubaneswar: West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee will call on her Odisha counterpart Naveen Patnaik at his residence here on Friday before the two attend the Eastern Zonal Council meeting to be chaired by Union home minister Amit Shah. Chief ministers of Bihar and Jharkhand, Nitish Kumar and Hemant Soren, are also scheduled to attend the meeting to be held later on the day.
This will be the first time Mamata will meet Shah after the enactment of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), one which the Trinamool Congress leader is opposed to, and Naveen supports.
“Mamata will pay Naveen a courtesy visit. There is no fixed agenda in the one-on-one meeting,” sources in the chief minister’s office said even as speculation is rife on what the two leaders would probably discuss.
Sources said the current political situation in the wake of violence in New Delhi over the citizenship act may figure in the brief meeting between the two regional leaders at Naveen Niwas. The same day, Shah is scheduled to address a pro-CAA rally at Janata Maidan in the city.
While Mamata has been a bitter critic of CAA, Naveen has come out in its support. This is not the only aspect on which the two chief ministers differ. While Mamata has vehemently opposed many initiatives of the Narendra Modi government at the Centre, Naveen has been quite the opposite.
In February last year, amid Mamata’s stir against the CBI-West Bengal police row over chit fund probe, Mamata had tried to garner Naveen’s support. But the Odisha chief minister had distanced himself. He was also cold to Mamata’s overtures to enlist his support for a regional front to take on the BJP at the Centre ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
The West Bengal chief minister, who landed here on a four-day visit on Tuesday night and headed to Puri, paid obeisance at the 12th century Jagannath temple on Wednesday. Responding to a media query on the violence in New Delhi, Mamata said, “We don’t want blood, we want peace. I prayed for the same before Lord Jagannath.” The first three days of her visit has been termed private.
EoM
This will be the first time Mamata will meet Shah after the enactment of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), one which the Trinamool Congress leader is opposed to, and Naveen supports.
“Mamata will pay Naveen a courtesy visit. There is no fixed agenda in the one-on-one meeting,” sources in the chief minister’s office said even as speculation is rife on what the two leaders would probably discuss.
Sources said the current political situation in the wake of violence in New Delhi over the citizenship act may figure in the brief meeting between the two regional leaders at Naveen Niwas. The same day, Shah is scheduled to address a pro-CAA rally at Janata Maidan in the city.
While Mamata has been a bitter critic of CAA, Naveen has come out in its support. This is not the only aspect on which the two chief ministers differ. While Mamata has vehemently opposed many initiatives of the Narendra Modi government at the Centre, Naveen has been quite the opposite.
In February last year, amid Mamata’s stir against the CBI-West Bengal police row over chit fund probe, Mamata had tried to garner Naveen’s support. But the Odisha chief minister had distanced himself. He was also cold to Mamata’s overtures to enlist his support for a regional front to take on the BJP at the Centre ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
The West Bengal chief minister, who landed here on a four-day visit on Tuesday night and headed to Puri, paid obeisance at the 12th century Jagannath temple on Wednesday. Responding to a media query on the violence in New Delhi, Mamata said, “We don’t want blood, we want peace. I prayed for the same before Lord Jagannath.” The first three days of her visit has been termed private.
EoM
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