Mamata leaves today for 3-day Delhi visit, to attend meet on 150th Gandhi Jayanti

Kolkata: Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will set out for her three-day-long visit to Delhi on Tuesday.

Banerjee will be attending a meeting, where there will be discussion over the programme schedule to observe the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will also be present in the meeting of the national level committee, comprising all chief ministers, Gandhians and eminent people from different walks of life.

The Bengal government will also celebrate the 150th birth anniversary of the father of the nation and it will begin from October 2 at Gandhi Bhavan in Beliaghata. The state government has set up a 46-member committee with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee as its chairperson and the committee has already held its first meeting.

The state government has taken all necessary measures for restoration of the Gandhi Bhavan. Besides organising essay competitions and publishing booklets, the state government has also decided to place a permanent chair in the name of Gandhiji at Calcutta University.

The Chief Minister will be staying in Delhi till May 3. Though the main objective of her visit is to attend the May 2 meeting over the programme schedule to observe the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, her visit has come up to be a crucial one, at a time when anti-BJP leaders from different states are in constant touch with her to form the Federal Front, to ensure a one-to-one fight in the general elections in 2019.

It may be recalled that during her last visit to Delhi in March, she had met former Congress president Sonia Gandhi. She had held meeting with eminent leaders, including National Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar.

In a recent development in connection with the formation of an anti-BJP front, Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao and DMK working president MK Stalin had a telephonic conversation with Banerjee on Sunday.

It may be recalled that Rao had held a meeting with Banerjee in Nabanna on March 19.