Is Mamata softening her stance on Modi and Shah? Signals from TMC chief spark buzz

Banerjee and Shah held a 15-minute meeting in the CM’s chambers on the 14th floor of the state secretariat, Nabanna, on December 16 after the Eastern Zonal Council meeting. At the time, a senior state administration official said, “We have dues from the Centre. The Central government has not paid (West Bengal) a single penny in MNGREGS since last January … the dues amount to more than Rs 6,000 crore. On Saturday, Banerjee gave a letter to Home Minister on this matter and we expect that the chief minister raised this point with the Home Minister during their meeting.”

Trinamool Congress (TMC) insiders said the Centre’s decision to stop funds disbursal had hit the state administration and the CM was trying to get the PM and the Union home minister’s help to ease the financial burden on her government. But the Opposition alleges that Banerjee has been on the back foot since the alleged school jobs scam erupted earlier this year and is attempting to reach a political understanding with the BJP so that central agencies back down. Several party leaders, including Banerjee’s nephew and TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee, are under the scanner of the investigating agencies.

Speaking in the Assembly in September, Banerjee gave Modi the benefit of doubt over central agencies launching investigations against TMC leaders while indirectly attacking Shah. “Ami mone kori na e sob Prime Minister korchen … CBI ar ED akhon unar under e nei. Khoj niye dekhun. Ekhon Home Ministry r under e. E shob BJP r lokerai korchhe (The CBI and the Enforcement Directorate are not under the Prime Minister. They are under the Union Home Ministry. Other BJP leaders are conspiring against the Opposition).”

Banerjee on Wednesday announced during a press conference that Defence Minister Rajnath Singh had called her up to invite her to an event at the Garden Reach Naval base in Kolkata on December 30. “I was also invited. The minister of the concerned department rang me and requested me to be present there and I will be there with the prime minister,” Banerjee told reporters. Modi is also expected to announce a Vande Bharat train for West Bengal, according to sources.

Last month, Banerjee met Modi during a three-day visit to Delhi and demanded that the decision to extend the Border Security Force’s jurisdiction in the state be withdrawn. She had also raised several state-related issues at the time and invited Modi to inaugurate the Bengal Global Business Meet next April.

Lashing out at Banerjee, CPI(M) leader Sujan Chakraborty said on Sunday, “The chief minister is now eager to meet the Prime Minister and Home Minister. It is now clear like daylight and all people knew that only these two can save the sinking ship of the TMC and Mamata Banerjee is doing exactly that.”

State BJP spokesperson Samik Bhattacharya refused to read too much into Banerjee’s meeting with Shah and her attempts to warm up to the PM. “This is a very weak screenplay,” he said. “She wants to confuse people. But, she will not be successful because the TMC and Mamata Banerjee have not changed.”

Despite Banerjee’s meeting with Shah and her purported attempts to get both him and the PM to help out Bengal financially, the TMC has not stopped from laying into the Modi government. TMC MP Mahua Moitra laid into the government during a debate on the supplementary demand of grants in the Lok Sabha during the recently concluded Winter Session. Accusing the Union government of being incompetent, Moitra raised a series of questions — on industrial output, manufacturing sector and the number of people leaving India — to ask, “Who’s the Pappu now?”

In September, after Abhishek Banerjee hit out at Amit Shah after the Enforcement Directorate (ED) questioned him in a coal smuggling case, the party’s youth wing launched a T-shirt campaign on social media against the senior BJP leader. The outfit’s members posed for photos wearing T-shirts with Shah’s photograph and “India’s biggest Pappu” written on it.