Two months after she made headlines by giving a cyclone ‘Yaas’ review meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi a miss, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is set to meet him again in the national capital on Tuesday.
The meeting is scheduled at 4pm and the agenda is likely to revolve around Modi’s intervention to bring down prices of essential commodities, price hike of petroleum products, COVID-19 vaccines for Bengal, pending central government funds and Pegasus snooping row.
Banerjee has in the recent past written several letters to prime minister on vaccine shortage, fuel price hike and state loan issue. She is likely to request the PM to keep COVID-19 medicines and medical items out of GST purview required to fight COVID-19 or maximum 0.1 percent GST (if required to be imposed) and not to divert the medical oxygen available in the state elsewhere.
Recently, the request from various states, including from Bengal, to keep medicines and other items related to COVID-19 out of GST purview was turned down in the 44th GST Council meeting chaired by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on June 12.
Sources told News18 that Banerjee may also urge the prime minister to sanction and release Rs 25,000 crore (approximate) that is due for West Bengal as the state’s finances are in ‘dire straits’.
Aiming for a larger role in the national politics after her resounding victory in the recently held West Bengal Assembly polls, Banerjee will meet former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath at 2 pm and then head for a meeting with Congress Rajya Sabha MP Anand Sharma. After her meeting with Modi, she will meet Congress Rajya Sabha MP Abhishek Manu Singhvi at 6.30pm.
Her Delhi visit and meetings with the opposition party leaders are being seen as the TMC’s efforts to expand its footprint in rest of the country to take forward its ‘Khela Hobe’ (let’s play) wave against BJP’s ‘Khela Sesh’ (game ends) jibe. This was the reason why the party decided to telecast her ‘Shahid Diwas’ (Martyr’s Day) speech on July 21 through giant screens in most parts of the country.
She is also likely to meet Congress chief Sonia Gandhi and NCP president Sharad Pawar to discuss plans for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
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