PM Modi & Mamata Banerjee to share stage in Haldia on Feb 7?

Things went out of tune at the Victoria Memorial grounds on January 23 this year to mark the 125^th birth anniversary of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, when West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee went to speak on stage in presence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Banerjee did not deliver her speech to protest what she felt was an attempt to insult her when she was asked to speak on the occasion, as some people from the audience chanted “Jai Shree Ram”.

Modi and Banerjee may share stage again soon at Haldia, the industrial town in Bengal. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to visit Haldia for a series of inauguration and foundation stone laying programmes organised by the Union Petroleum & Natural Gas, and the Roads, Transport and Highways ministries on February 7. State CM Mamata Banerjee has been invited in the progammes along with Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar and local Trinamool Congress member of Parliament Dibyendu Adhikary. Petroleum minister Dharmendra Pradhan mentioned this at Haldia on Sunday.

However, it is not clear yet whether the CM will attend at the programme.

Since minister in the Mamata Banerjee cabinet Suvendu Adhikary joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), things have not been congenial between the Adhikary family (Dibyendu is Suvendu’s younger brother) and the Trinamool Congress. Dibyendu and Sisir Adhikary (the latter Trinamool MP is father of Dibyendu and Suvendu) hadn’t even been part of Mamata Banerjee’s public meeting in their district though they are both still a part of Bengal’s ruling party. Naturally, the upcoming programme of which the Prime Minister is a part, is creating a lot of curiosity in political circles. This is also because Haldia is part of the Adhikary family’s stronghold. The Union Minister visited Haldia on Sunday to prepare for the PM’s upcoming programme, and also met Dibyendu Adhikary.