West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee met Home Minister Amit Shah in New Delhi on Thursday, following her Wednesday meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
As the meeting came at a time when the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) is hounding the Additional Director General of the West Bengal Police's Criminal Investigation Department Rajeev Kumar, speculations were being raised regarding the purpose of Mamata's Delhi visit.
The Bengal CM, however, on Tuesday had called the meeting with PM Modi a "courtesy call", describing it as a "government to government" meeting and said that various issues, including central funds due to the state, will be raised.
This was the first meeting the Trinamool Congress chairperson held with PM Modi and Home Minister Shah since the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government came to power for its second term.
After the declaration of the results of 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Mamata had on various instances declined to visit Delhi for meetings called by the Centre.
Here are five points from the Bengal CM's meeting with the PM and Union home minister.
- Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee raised the issue of the National Register of Citizens in Assam in her meeting with Amit Shah.
"I raised the issue of Assam NRC with the Home Minister and handed him a letter. I spoke to him about the exclusion of 19 lakh people out of the Assam NRC, some of who are Hindi, Bengali and Gorkha-speaking people and genuine Indian voters," she said.
- She ruled out the possibility of a similar list for West Bengal Bengal.
"He didn't speak about NRC in West Bengal. There is no need for NRC there," said Mamata Banerjee, referring to Amit Shah.
- WB CM asked PM Modi to expedite the process of changing the name of the state to Bangla.
"The meeting with Prime Minister Modi was good. We discussed changing the name of West Bengal to 'Bangla'. He has promised to do something about the matter," Banerjee was quoted as saying by ANI.
- The TMC supremo also invited PM Modi to inaugurate the world's second-largest coal block in West Bengal.
"I have requested the Prime Minister to attend the programme for world's second-largest coal block Deocha Panchami in Birbhum district after Navratri puja. The project is worth Rs 12,000 crore," Banerjee told reporters after the meeting.
- Banerjee showed PM Modi documents regarding West Bengal's economic progress.
"We submitted a lot of documents to substantiate the requests we made. Bengal's GDP is 12.8, which is highest across the country. We showed him how Bengal is progressing despite huge debt burden. We also gave him documents to highlight our achievements in the field of economy and infrastructure," she said.
After Mamata's meeting with the PM and MHA, West Bengal BJP leader Dilip Ghosh said that "good sense" has prevailed, but it's "too late". "It is good that her (Banerjee's) good sense has at last prevailed. But I think it's too late. Her attempts to save herself and her party (TMC) from CBI will not yield any results. The law will take its own course and all those who have looted public money or have aided the culprits will have to go behind the bars," he said.
Meanwhile, Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury questioned the timing of the meet.
