Mamata likely to meet Odisha CM during her 2-day tour

Kolkata: Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will be on a two-day tour to Odisha later this month where she is expected to call on her Odisha counterpart Naveen Patnaik.

Sources in Trinamool Congress said Banerjee is likely to reach Bhubaneswar on March 21 evening. After staying there for a night, Banerjee will visit Puri on March 22 and offer prayers at the Jagannath temple. Before taking a return flight on March 23, she is likely to hold a meeting with Patnaik who is the chief of Biju Janata Dal (BJD).

The probable visit of the Bengal Chief Minister sparks off speculations in political circles over the emergence of an alliance at the national level to check the BJP in 2024. It would be too early to say anything on whether the two leaders will be meeting to fine-tune strategy to oppose the saffron party, sources in TMC said. Banerjee has appeared as the face of the Opposition parties in the country after the way she had taken the ruling dispensation at the Centre and the BJP during the last Assembly election in Bengal. There has been speculation that the TMC chief may be instrumental in forging a grand alliance for the Lok Sabha elections next year without keeping Congress in the fray.

Patnaik had always been an independent political identity and he tends to keep an equal distance from both BJP and Congress. He was hardly found to raise his voice on behalf of any camp on this count. On the other hand, Banerjee has been quite vocal against BJP and has been trying to form a formidable opposition.