INDIA meet: Mamata to reach Mumbai a day in advance to meet Big B

Kolkata, Aug 28 (IANS) West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee will reach Mumbai a day in advance of the two-day meeting of the Indian National Development Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) on August 31 and September 1.

Party insiders said that the chief minister is expected to reach Mumbai on the evening of August 30, which coincides with the auspicious occasion of Rakhi festival.

As per the schedule fixed as of now, the chief minister after landing at Mumbai will go straight to the bungalow of Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan and tie Rakhi on the latter.

“On several occasions before, the superstar and his wife Jaya Bachchan had visited Kolkata on the occasion of the Kolkata International Film Festival. Last time when they came to Kolkata, Mrs Bachchan especially invited the chief minister to pay a visit to their bungalow when the latter went to Mumbai. So the chief minister wants to utilize the opportunity,” said a member of the state cabinet.

She is also scheduled to attend the dinner hosted jointly by Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar and the Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray on the evening of August 31.

The INDIA meeting at Mumbai, the third such meeting after Patna and Bengaluru, is happening at a time when there is turmoil in the West Bengal units of both Congress and CPI(M) over the rationale behind having an understanding with Trinamool Congress considering that the latter is their principal opposition in the state.

While a section of the Congress leaders are extremely vocal against their central leadership over their hobnobbing with Mamata Banerjee amid the plight of the state Congress workers in the hands of the activists of the ruling party. Similar internal tension is brewing within CPI(M) over the party’s general secretary Sitaram Yechury seen sharing the same dais and even the same frame with Mamata Banerjee.

--IANS

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