Mamata Banerjee accompanied Union home minister Amit Shah in his car on Saturday to travel a distance of 200 metres to Nabanna, following which the two leaders held a one-to-one meeting for 15 minutes in the chief minister’s 14th-floor office.

The meeting, held on the sidelines of the Eastern Zonal Security Council session convened by Shah, attracted attention in view of the strenuous relationship between Mamata and Shah, who sat across a table for the first time since the 2021 Assembly polls.

While there was no official briefing on the meeting, the Bengal unit of the BJP soon came forward with an explanation on why Shah met Mamata.

“As the leader of the Opposition, I asked him (Shah) about his discussion with the chief minister. He told me that the meeting at the auditorium was agenda-based. In the oneto-one meeting, he requested the chief minister to give land for 72 BSF camps along the border.... He also stressed the need for better coordination between the BSF and the state police,” the BJP’s Suvendu Adhikari told journalists at Calcutta airport after seeing off Shah.

The Nandigram MLA, who was accompanied by Bengal BJP chief Sukanta Majumdar and other state leaders, added that there was no need for any speculation on Shah’s meeting with Mamata, baring a degree of unease with the rendezvous at a time the CPM and the Congress pointed to a “setting” between Trinamul and the BJP.

While CPM state secretary Mohammad Salim termed the meeting an attempt by Mamata to save her party colleagues accused in corruption cases from the central agencies, Congress MP Adhir Chowdhury claimed Shah and Mamata discussed how to prevent the possibility of a united Opposition against the BJP ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

Multiple sources in the BJP told this correspondent that the closed-door session had come as a “disappointment” for them as they would find it difficult to explain to the party’s footsoldiers the administrative aspect of the meeting.

“We have come to terms with the chief minister meeting the Prime Minister because of the administrative compulsions in a federal structure.... But given the attack Trinamul has launched on Amitji in recent times, we didn’t expect him to meet her in private,” a Bengal BJP office-bearer said.

At an internal meeting on Friday evening, Shah was told that the CPM had outperformed the BJP in organising movements against Trinamul. The claim was made by MPs Locket Chatterjee and Khagen Murmu and former Rajya Sabha member Swapan Dasgupta.