CHIEF MINISTERS AND FOREIGN TRAVEL

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee: After assuming office in 2011, Banerjee went abroad for the first time in 2014, travelling to Singapore to solicit investment for Bengal. Banerjee then travelled to London in 2015 (having previously mocked Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s serial foreign trips) with a delegation of 60 people following an invitation from Prime Minister David Cameron. She met, among others, the Duke of York, Prince Andrew, at Buckingham Palace. In 2016, she visited Italy and Germany, again to solicit foreign investment. In February this year, she visited Poland for an economic conference and is currently in the Netherlands. Coincidentally, most of her foreign trips have been in June-July, the peak of the European tourist season.

Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik: Once part of the jet set, Patnaik rarely comes to Delhi, leave alone travelling abroad. In 2012, he went on an eight-day visit to London, his first foreign trip since he became CM in 2000. That’s the only one.

Haryana Chief Minister ML Khattar: Khattar went on a tour to Japan and China in January 2016, after which he announced that investment of ~60,000 crore had been promised by the Wanda company, largest real estate developer of China alone. Nothing more was heard of that. Undeterred, he went on a tour to Singapore and Hong Kong last month, again in search of investment.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis: Fadnavis went to the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos in 2015 as part of Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s delegation and followed it up the same year with a trip to the US. He is going to the US again later this year. Since he became CM in October 2014, he has travelled to Switzerland, Germany, Japan, Israel, China and Russia.