KOLKATA: Unapologetic during her heydays, Bengal’s indomitable Mamata Banerjee is trying to balance her moves following Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials putting one of her trusted lieutenants, Partha Chatterjee, under custody in a multi-crore Bengal SSC Recruitment Scam.
The opinion may be divided but the once defiant Banerjee was more silent in recent times – with only occasional flashes of her trademark aggression.
In the midst of turmoil in her Trinamool Congress (TMC), Bengal Chief minister Banerjee will fly to Delhi on August 4 to attend the Niti Aayog meeting, which will be chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on August 7.
Incidentally, Banerjee did not attend the last Niti Aayog meeting held in February last year.
Speculations are rife that Banerjee will also meet PM Modi during her visit. While the Bengal CM is expected to raise the issue of the pending amount under MGNREGA, the state is gearing up for the Panchayat poll.
In June, a TMC delegation met Union rural development minister Giriraj Singh demanding the clearance of pending wages amounting to ₹7130 crores under the MGNREGA scheme.
Banerjee is also scheduled to meet chief ministers of other states including Arvind Kejriwal, Bhagwant Mann, K Chandrashekar Rao and MK Stalin on August 6.
There is a possibility of her meeting with Congress interim chief Sonia Gandhi but the meeting is yet to be fixed.
The relationship between TMC and Congress seems to have hit a rough patch following the former’s decision to abstain from the Vice-Presidential election.
Incidentally, Banerjee was at the forefront during the Presidential elections. She was instrumental in rallying most of the opposition parties behind common presidential candidate Yashwant Sinha.
However, she appeared to have developed cold feet at the later stages and was conspicuous by her absence on most occasions that set the tongues wagging.