Leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari on Friday met chief minister Mamata Banerjee in her chamber at the Assembly at the latter’s invitation, prompting many to wonder if she was seeking to promote a “brand of inclusiveness” in politics.

This was the first time that both met across the table after Adhikari had left the Trinamul Congress and joined the BJP and defeated Mamata in Nandigram in the 2021 Assembly polls by a margin of 1,956 votes. Both had exchanged pleasantries on a couple of occasions after the elections.

After receiving the invitation through the marshal of the House around 1pm, Adhikari went to the chief minister’s chamber, along with BJP MLAs Ashok Lahiri, Agnimitra Paul and chief whip Manoj Tigga. They spent three to four minutes with Mamata.

For the remaining part of the day, the Assembly corridors were abuzz with speculations about the reason behind the invitation, the discussions behind closed doors and the fallout of the meeting between Adhikari and Mamata, whose bitterness towards each other had only grown with time.

Neither Mamata nor Adhikari shared details of what had transpired at the meeting. A source in the Assembly said Adhikari greeted Mamata by touching her feet, but when asked about it, the leader of the Opposition declined comments.

“She greeted me and I reciprocated it... I won’t say anything beyond it,” said the Nandigram MLA, who had mounted a bitter attack on the chief minister on Wednesday, accusing her of planning his “insult” by earmarking a seat in the second row for him at the oath-taking of governor C.V. Ananda Bose.

Both Mamata and Adhikari said it was a “courtesy meeting” on the eve of Constitution Day, celebrated across the country for the past seven years. The Constituent Assembly had adopted the Constitution of India on November 26, 1949. The Narendra Modi had government issued a gazette notification in 2015 to observe November 26 as the Constitution Day, but the Bengal government kept it as a low-key affair till last year.

“The Assembly today adopted a resolution commemorating the Constitution Day.... The newly-constructed platinum jubilee building of the Assembly was also inaugurated today. It is interesting to see that the ruling dispensation in Bengal is observing programmes proposed by the central government,” said a source in the Assembly.

Mamata’s invite to Adhikari — she had referred to him as a younger brother in her address in the House earlier in the day — or the programmes commemorating the Constitution Day triggered questions on whether the chief minister was trying to send a message of inclusiveness to the Opposition and if so, why.

“Our chief minister can rise above petty politics and she showed grace by fondly referring to him as a brother.... She also ensured that no one from the treasury benches heckled Adhikari when he was speaking in the House attacking us. In her speech, Didi also tried to respond to his allegations. This is her brand of inclusive politics,” said a minister, who did not wish to be named.

At the inaugural programme of the new building, which the Opposition boycotted, Mamata asked Speaker Biman Banerjee whether BJP MLAs had been sent invitations. He replied that a letter was sent to them. “I wish they were here at the historic moment,” rued Mamata, who instructed information and cultural affairs department officials to invite all Opposition MLAs and MPs to the coming Kolkata International Film Festival.

Multiple sources in the Assembly admitted that the chief minister’s gesture towards the Opposition, especially Adhikari, was different on Friday. “There is a new governor at Raj Bhavan and she is probably trying to send a message to him that she believes in the inclusive brand of politics and always allows space for the Opposition,” said a source.

Another source said Mamata was probably trying to adhere to the advice from Bose, who had apparently conveyed to the chief minister and the Opposition leader during his separate meetings with them that the “bitterness” between them was not good for a healthy democracy.

A section of BJP leaders, however, referred to the developments in the Assembly as signs of Mamata’s unease with corruption cases in which the names of senior ministers and Trinamul’s national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee had cropped up.

“She is nervous about the fallout of the investigations and trying to keep the leader of the Opposition in good humour,” said a source in the BJP.