Amid West Bengal chief minister Mamta Banerjee’s strong pitch for uniting Opposition parties before the 2024 Loksabha Elections, the TMC supremo could not meet NCP chief Sharad Pawar during her five-day visit to Delhi giving rise to speculation on why the two couldn’t meet.
However, sources have said that Banerjee spoke to Pawar and will be coming to Delhi every two months.
According to sources the meeting could not take place as there was no initiative from either side as the NCP chief was in Delhi this week to attend the Parliament session from July 27. Pawar left for Maharashtra on Friday, while Banerjee will leave for Kolkata later in the day.
Banerjee started her visit to Delhi on July 26. During her visit, she met Congress President Sonia Gandhi and former Congress President Rahul Gandhi at 10 Janpath on July 28. During her stay at 183, South Avenue, the official residence of her nephew Abhishek Banerjee, senior Congress leaders Kamal Nath, Anand Sharma and Abhishek Manu Singhvi and Delhi CM and AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal also met Banerjee. DMK’s Kanimozhi also met the Bengal chief minister.
Expectations were rife that NCP Chief Sharad Pawar and SP Chief Akhilesh Yadav will meet Banerjee during this time, but no such meeting took place.
On Martyr’s Day, Banerjee had urged Pawar and Congress leader P Chidambaram to call for a meeting and building a new front at the earlierst. Pawar, Chidambaram, Congress’ Digvijay Singh, Samajwadi party’s Jaya Bachchan, among other Opposition leaders, were present to take part in TMC’s Martyr’s Day programme at Delhi’s Constitution Club on July 21.
Sources in TMC said that a few weeks ago TMC vice-president Yashwant Sinha had met Sharad Pawar in Delhi, so much should not be speculated if the Mamta-Pawar meeting couldn’t take place in Delhi.
On the other hand, Pawar was seen with Lalu Prasad in Delhi itself. Political buzz is that there can be two reasons
Both Mamata and Pawar are political heavyweights who are contenders for leadership it has been speculated if both sides are waiting to see what the other person does. Banerjee thought, kept her door open and was free to sit and talk with anyone.
There has also been speculation that the meeting between Pawar and Prime Minister Narendra Modi that created a lot of buzz could also be the reason why the meeting did not happen.
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