WB CM Mamata Banerjee meets PM Modi

New Delhi, Sep 18: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, a strong critic of the BJP-led Centre and the Prime Minister, met Narendra Modi in the national capital on Wednesday.

Banerjee has vehemently criticised PM Modi in the past on almost every issue. She had launched a bitter attack on the Centre over the detention of former chief ministers of Jammu and Kashmir in the wake of Article 370 abrogation.

Banerjee yesterday said that her meeting with PM Modi should be seen as a "courtesy call".

She did not attend Modi's swearing-in in May when he took overcharge for the second time and stayed away from the Niti Aayog meeting in June. The last time Banerjee and Modi met was at the Visva Bharati University Convocation at Shantiniketan on May 25, 2018.

However, on Prime Minister Modi's birthday on Wednesday, Banerjee tweeted: "Birthday greetings to Prime Minister @narendramodi ji." Modi, too, took to the micro-blogging site to thank Banerjee, whom he referred to as 'Didi'.

Replying in both English and Bengali, PM Modi tweeted, "Thank you so much, Mamata Didi."

Before the Lok Sabha elections in April-May, Banerjee took many initiatives to forge a pan-India anti-BJP front to stop NDA from winning. She had in February even organised a rally of around 15 opposition parties in Kolkata pledging that they would do all they can to stop Modi from becoming the Prime Minister the second time.

A PTI report quoting sources said that the CM and PM meeting is scheduled at 4:30 pm on Wednesday.

The meeting assumes significance as it will be held at a time when several leaders of the ruling Trinamool Congress and former Kolkata police commissioner Rajeev Kumar are under CBI scanner in connection with the Saradha ponzi scam. The Saradha group of companies had allegedly duped lakhs of people to the tune of Rs 2500 crore, promising higher rates of returns on their investments.