Mamata on three-day visit to Odisha, likely to meet Patnaik

Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee is likely to meet her Odisha counterpart Naveen Patnaik on Tuesday.

Arya Kumar Gyanendra, the state convenor of Trinamool Congress, said, "Her tour is purely personal and has nothing to do with politics".

Official sources said she would be a state guest and is scheduled to have a darshan of Lord Jagannath in Puri.

Banerjee is expected meet party MP Sudip Bandyopadhyay, who has been admitted to a private hospital following his arrest by the CBI in the Rose Valley chit fund scam.

It may be mentioned that for quite some time Sudip Bandopadhyay wanted to meet the party supremo. Bandopadhyay, a four-time MP is in CBI custody and Banerjee stood by him and said that BJP was using CBI against Bandopadhyay as he had raised his voice against BJP in Lok Sabha on the ill effects of demonetization. Banerjee was arrested on January 3 and taken to Bhubaneswar. He is now receiving treatment at SCB Medical College and Hospital.

Asked whether Banerjee would meet Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik after her arrival here on Tuesday evening, Gyanendra said: "We have no information in this regard."

CMO sources, however, said Banerjee is likely to meet Patnaik on Tuesday evening. Both the chief ministers had met at the Parliament House in Delhi on April 10.

The proposed meeting of the two non-BJP and neighbouring chief ministers assume significance as the ruling parties in Odisha and West Bengal are being targetted by BJP. Banerjee and Patnaik may draw a specific strategy to counter the saffron surge in their respective states.