Tribune News Service
New Delhi, 24 November
BJP Rajya Sabha member Subramanian Swamy will meet West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee at her Delhi residence on Wednesday afternoon.
There is a lot of curiosity in the political circles about the meeting.
Recently, when the central government refused to allow Banerjee to travel to Rome to attend a global peace meeting, Swamy sided with her.
Swamy, whose Rajya Sabha term ends in April, sought to know why Mamata was stopped from going to Rome. He had tweeted, “Why was Bengal CM Mamata prevented by the Home Ministry from attending an international conference in Rome? What law prevented him from leaving?”
Swamy demanded that Prime Minister Narendra Modi should intervene in the matter. “In the Constitution, freedom to travel is a fundamental right subject to reasonable restrictions. What was the proper restriction he was told? Modi should intervene and allow him,” Swamy had tweeted.
Incidentally, Swamy and his wife met West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar at the Raj Bhavan in Kolkata on Tuesday. After the meeting, Dhankhar tweeted, describing Swamy as a “well-wisher for over three decades” and that “highly benefited from his reflections on several issues”.
After TMC’s third consecutive victory in the assembly elections held in West Bengal earlier this year, Mamata is all set to make TMC a national level player by 2024 in the next general elections.
Cricketer-turned-politician Kirti Azad, former Congress leader Ashok Tanwar and former JD(U) MP Pawan K Verma on Tuesday joined the TMC in Delhi in the presence of Mamata.
The official reason for Mamata’s Delhi visit is to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi and raise various issues related to the state with him. His meeting with the PM is to be held at 5 pm on Wednesday.