Narendra Modi and Mamata Banerjee are likely to come face-to-face at a conference of chief ministers and high court chief justices in Delhi on April 30.
Sources at Nabanna confirmed the Bengal chief minister’s participation in the event where topics like speedy delivery of justice, reduction in pendency of litigations and rising vacancies in the judiciary are likely to top the agenda.
“The chief minister is likely to reach New Delhi on April 29, a day before the conference, which will be inaugurated by the Prime Minister,” said a source at Nabanna.
As both Modi and Mamata will take part in the same programme, they will surely come face-to-face, the source added.
There was a possibility of a meeting between the duo at the recent Bengal Global Business Summit to which Mamata had invited Modi. The sources at Nabanna said the state government had received an acknowledgment of its invite to the Prime Minister to the summit and there was an expectation that he would turn up at the programme.
Although several preoccupations prevented the Prime Minister from coming to Calcutta, Mamata, a source said, is trying to meet Modi during her Delhi visit.
“A request for a meeting has gone, but an appointment with the PM is yet to be confirmed,” he added.
If a meeting between Modi and Mamata does take place, the chief minister is likely to raise the issue of how states are being deprived of central funds. A minister said Bengal was in urgent need of funds to restore embankments in the Sundarbans and Digha and for various social development projects like the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme.
“The Centre’s denial of funds is hurting Bengal’s development. So, if our chief minister meets the Prime Minister separately, she will certainly raise the issue,” said the minister.
Mamata had met Modi twice after the 2021 Assembly polls with demands of the state and iterated that political differences should not come in the way of smooth functioning of the federal structure, which determines flow of funds from Delhi.
Over the past few years, Mamata’s visits to Delhi had evoked interest in the political circles as she made it a point to meet leaders of Opposition parties. This time, the interest is even more as she will be addressing a programme on judiciary in the backdrop of Calcutta High Court handing over five cases to the CBI in a month.
“All eyes will be on what Didi says at the conference,” said a Trinamul Congress leader.
Mamata’s visit is important politically at a time her party is trying to play a key role in forming an anti-BJP alliance ahead of the 2024 general election.
On March 27, Mamata wrote to all Opposition leaders and chief ministers and expressed her concerns over how the BJP was attacking the country’s institutional democracy by using central agencies like the CBI, enforcement directorate and income tax department against political opponents.
