Days after BJP leader and leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari threatened to boycott the Constitution Day programme over the “exclusion of his name” from the invitation letter, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee — in a first since last year’s state elections — held a “courtesy meeting” with Adhikari at her Assembly chamber on Friday, raising eyebrows in political circles, with the Congress terming it a “Didi-Modi patch-up” and the CPI(M) calling it part of an “understanding between the TMC and the BJP”. Party MLAs Ashok Lahiri and Agnimitra Pal and Chief Whip of the BJP legislative party Manoj Tigga accompanied Adhikari to the meeting that was held shortly after the Assembly session broke for recess in the afternoon and lasted for about five minutes. Later, participating in a discussion over Constitution Day in the House, Banerjee said of Adhikari, “I had at one point adored him like a brother.” When Banerjee won the 2011 Assembly polls, Adhikari was among her close lieutenants along with Mukul Roy, Subrata Baksi and Partha Chatterjee, but their relationship deteriorated after Adhikari resigned from the TMC and the state cabinet and joined BJP in presence of Union Home Minister Amit Shah in December 2020. After that, both leaders never met again. Adhikari told reporters that it was “just a courtesy call. Nothing else should be read into it. I did not have tea”. Reacting to the “courtesy meeting”, Congress leader Kamurzzan Chowdhury said the process of “Didi-Modi patch-up” was underway, with an eye on the 2024 Lok Sabha elections. “The Centre released funds for Pradhan Mantri Gram Awas Yojana yesterday, and Mamata is scheduled to meet PM Modi on December 5. Today, the CM met Suvendu. All these points to the fact that the process for Didi-Modi patch-up is underway,” he said.
