Close door meeting between Andhra, WB CM for Mahagathbandhan’s future

PTI, May 10, 2019, 3:10 PM IST

Kolkata: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister and TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu have held a closed-door discussion with his West Bengal counterpart Mamata Banerjee in Kharagpur on future plans of the Mahagathbandhan (grand alliance).

The meeting between Banerjee and Naidu took place for over 15 minutes late Thursday evening, according to a well-placed source in the Trinamool Congress.

Naidu and Didi (Banerjee) also discussed the TDP leaders meeting with Rahul Gandhi in New Delhi Wednesday, a senior TMC member told PTI.

On whether Banerjee will be attending the proposed meeting of the opposition parties likely to be held on May 21, the TMC leader said that the date of the meeting was yet not decided.

It’s not decided that the meeting will be held on May 21… it seems that it might be deferred by a couple of days and take place after May 23. Didi May be taking part in it, he said.

Naidu and Banerjee are believed to have also talked about the voter-verified paper audit trail (VVPAT) issue and the probable voting percentage in the so far held five phases of polling in the ongoing Lok Sabha Elections, the TMC leader said.

Earlier, Naidu joined Banerjee at a campaign meeting of TMC at Kharagpur on Thursday where he spoke high about her and urged people to vote for Trinamool to oust the BJP from the power.

Later, Naidu participated and delivered a speech for TMC North Kolkata Lok Sabha constituency candidate Sudip Bandyopadhyay at Sithi in the city.

Banerjee, who has floated the idea of a federal front of regional parties, has been playing an important role for unity of the anti-BJP bloc.