Kolkata: A crucial meeting between West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and her Bihar counterpart Nitish Kumar has been rescheduled for Monday.
Initially, sources from the state secretariat said that the meeting was supposed to happen on Tuesday at Banerjee’s residence Kalighat in South Kolkata.
“However, later it was conveyed to us that Nitish Kumar will arrive in Kolkata Monday only for a few hours and instead of the Chief Minister’s residence, the meeting will take place at the state secretariat of Nabanna,” a state government official said.
It is learnt that after his brief Kolkata visit, Nitish Kumar will rush to Lucknow, where is supposed to meet Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav.
Both Mamata Banerjee and Nitish Kumar have been quite active to unite the opposition against the BJP for the 2024 polls.
However, there has been a basic difference in the approach of the two leaders on this count.
On one hand, Banerjee’s scheme of things has not counted so far, the same is not the approach for Nitish Kumar.
Last month, Akhilesh Yadav met her in Kalighat, and in the meeting, the two leaders agreed to maintain a distance with Congress and rather focus on the unity of the regional forces against the BJP in 2024.
On the other hand, in his endeavor to unite the opposition, the Bihar Chief Minister also met Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge.
Soon after meeting Akhilesh, Mamata Banerjee went to Odisha and had a meeting with her counterpart Naveen Patnaik.
This was followed by a visit to Kolkata by Janata Dal (Secular) leader H.D. Kumaraswamy during which he met Banerjee.
Last week, Banerjee also called up her counterpart in Tamil Nadu M.K. Stalin, and discussed the unity of opposition forces against the role of Governors in the state.