CM meets Guv at Raj Bhavan, extends festive greetings

Kolkata: Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday called on Nirmala Banerjee, mother of Nobel laureate Abhijit Vinayak Banerjee, who is admitted at a private hospital in the city and is said to be in a critical condition. Banerjee, later in the evening, paid a courtesy visit to Governor C V Ananda Bose at Raj Bhavan to exchange Bijoya greetings.

“It is a courtesy visit and I came to exchange Bijoya greetings,” Banerjee told reporters while leaving Raj Bhavan. She reached Raj Bhavan at 6.05 pm and was there till 6.45 pm.

Before Raj Bhavan, the Chief Minister paid a visit to Nirmala Banerjee in the hospital at EM Bypass and enquired about her ongoing treatment from the doctors.

“I had heard that Nirmala Banerjee, mother of Nobel laureate Abhijit Vinayak Banerjee, has been admitted in hospital after sustaining an injury in her head from a fall. I have met her several times on earlier occasions and even after Abhijit received the Nobel prize, she had come and met me. I feel very sad as her condition is very critical. Abhijit will be coming to Kolkata tomorrow (Friday ),” Banerjee said.

Mamata has a very good relationship with Abhijit and her mother. In the advisory committee that she had constituted during COVID, Abhijit was one of the key members.

On October 5, TMC leaders, led by Abhishek Banerjee, had sat on a dharna outside Raj Bhavan in Kolkata demanding that the Governor must raise the matter of non-payment of MGNREGA dues with the Centre. The stir was called off only after Governor C V Ananda Bose assured them that he would raise the issue with the Centre within 24 hours.

Bose on Wednesday had said that he intimated Banerjee of the response he received from a central minister who had directed the authorities concerned to take necessary action.