Though Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is scheduled to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Kalaikunda airport today to review the damage caused to Yassin, the issue was further complicated on Thursday night. Mamata Banerjee will not attend the meeting as the situation will continue till night. Navanna was informed about this in Delhi last night.
Sources said that the main reason for Mamata’s opposition was the possibility of Shuvendu Adhikari attending the Prime Minister’s meeting. Narendra Modi will be accompanied by Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, Union Minister Debashree Chaudhary, Governor Jagdeep Dhankar and BJP MLA Shuvendu Adhikari. State government sources said that the Chief Minister withdrew after learning about the list. His argument was that neither the Union Minister nor the Governor would attend the meeting. Why should Shuvendu qualify?
The BJP has said that Shuvendu will be the Leader of the Opposition in the state assembly. But he has not yet officially taken over the post. Now, he is the only MLA who lost Mamata and won from Nandagram. It is learned that the Chief Minister thinks that the meeting is being made ‘political’ on this issue. Only Chief Secretary Alapana Banerjee is scheduled to meet him.
The meeting between the Chief Minister and the Prime Minister will be held at Kalaikunda from 2.30 pm to 3.30 pm on Thursday. Modi will come from Orissa. Mamata Banerjee will first go to Sandeshkhali-Hingalganj in North 24 Parganas with the Chief Secretary. See the situation there from the sky, go to sea after meeting with the local government. After visiting the area and holding similar meetings, he was to reach Kalaikunda.
If there is a Modi-Mamata meeting and there is a situation where a helicopter is flying, the Chief Minister will go to Digha. He has alternative plans to spend the night in Khargpur tomorrow and go to Digha on Saturday. In addition to the administrative meeting, Mamata also has a program to visit the affected areas by air. At a press conference in Navan this afternoon, the Chief Minister criticized Modi’s arrival. He said, “The Prime Minister is going to three places in Orissa. Not going anywhere else. After visiting three places like Baleshwar and Jaleshwar which were affected by Yas, he will reach Kalaikunda in Digha. Because from there he has to go to Delhi! So sit down with me and review. ”
According to the government, the Chief Minister will be able to raise the issue during his meeting with the Prime Minister. According to Mamata, the preliminary survey has so far cost Rs 15,000 crore.
If there is a meeting at the end, it will be the first meeting between the Prime Minister and the Chief Minister after the vote. He had attended Modi’s virtual meeting with Kovid a few days back but the CM did not get a chance to speak. He expressed dissatisfaction in this regard.
