Mamata on two-day trip to Mumbai, to address industrialists, meet Sharad Pawar

PTI, Nov 30, 2021, 4:14 PM IST

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee left on a two-day tour of Mumbai on Tuesday afternoon from Kolkata.

During her visit, Banerjee said she will meet NCP chief Sharad Pawar and Maharashtra minister Aditya Thackerary, besides attending a host of events, including an entrepreneur’s conference.

The chief minister is scheduled to address industrialists at the conference organised by YPO (Young President’s Organisation) — a US-based global leadership community.

Banerjee said she would invite the attending industrialists to the Bengal Global Business Summit, which will be held in April next year, and urge them to invest in West Bengal.

”Bengal is the destination for new industries and investments,” she said.

The business summit will be organised by the West Bengal government with COVID-19 safety precautions to attract much-needed investments, she said. ”The economy, the country and life cannot to a standstill out of fear of the pandemic.” Banerjee, whose TMC is spreading its wings in Goa to make its presence felt in states outside West Bengal as the most potent force against the BJP, said she will be meeting Pawar, one of the senior most opposition leaders in the country.

She said that she wanted to visit Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray who is recuperating from surgery, but that would not be possible owing to his doctor’s advice of being in isolation.

”Uddhav Thackeray’s son Aditya will come to meet me at the hotel where I will be staying,” Banerjee told reporters at the Kolkata airport.

She will also be going to the Police Memorial to pay respect to the personnel who lost their lives in the 26/11 attacks, and also visit the Siddhivinayak Temple.

Banerjee said that she will meet eminent personalities at a programme, which is being organised by Javed Akhtar and Sudheendra Kulkarni.

The chief minister said that during her trip she has no plans to meet Bollywood superstar Shahrukh Khan, who was earlier appointed West Bengal’s brand ambassador.

On the pandemic situation, Banerjee said that her government is taking steps to increase awareness among people about the new Omicron variant.