Didi discusses key issues with Modi

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on her first visit to Delhi after winning the Assembly elections met Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

After the meeting Banerjee told reporters that the Prime Minister should convene an allparty meeting to discuss the Pegasus issue and decide on a Supreme Court-led probe.

Her nephew Abhishek Banerjee is among the potential targets whose names have surfaced as part of a worldwide investigation by a media consortium.

The Chief Minister described her meeting with the Prime Minister Narendra Modi as a ‘courtesy visit’ — she had discussed the Covid situation, the supply of vaccines and medicine to the state and also a proposal to rename Bengal as Bangla.

“I should not speak what the PM said,” she said. The Chief Minister and the Prime Minister had met briefly in May, when Banerjee’s move to skip the Prime Minister’s Cyclone Yaas review meeting became a huge flashpoint between the Centre and West Bengal. Banerjee had left the meeting after handing over a report.

Her Delhi visit is being seen as sewing up the Opposition unity in the coming days. In the last couple of weeks the Congress has warmed up to Banerjee’s TMC.

She will be meeting Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Wednesday. She said, “On Wednesday, I am meeting Sonia Gandhi. She has invited me for tea.”

On her plan to bring all Opposition parties on one platform, She said, “Though the Lok Sabha polls are far away, we must start planning in advance. Assembly elections will be held in Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Tripura. Our people were arrested in Tripura.”

Responding to a question on Opposition unity against the ruling NDA, she said it will take shape on its own. Asked whether she will lead the opposition parties, Banerjee said the country will lead the opposition unity.

Banerjee also met Congress leaders Kamal Nath, Anand Sharma and Abhishek Manu Singhvi.