Former Chief Minister and JDS leader HD Kumaraswamy met West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee at her residence in Kolkata today. Photo: Special Arrangement
Janata Dal (Secular) leader HD Kumaraswamy met West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee at her residence in Kolkata on Friday. The meeting between the two leaders lasted for about 45 minutes. After the meeting, none of the leaders spoke to the media persons.
“Former Chief Minister of Karnataka and leader of @JanataDal_S Shri @hd_kumaraswamy called on Hon’ble Chief Minister Smt @MamataOfficial at Kalighat, Kolkata today. Some glimpses of the meeting,” tweeted the Trinamool Congress, sharing pictures of the meeting.
This is the third meeting between the Trinamool chief and leaders of major regional parties in the last one week. Ms Banerjee met Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Akhilesh Yadav in Kolkata on March 17 and on Thursday she met Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik in Bhubaneswar.
For the past few weeks, the Trinamool leadership has been insisting on maintaining an equal distance from the BJP and the Congress. After the meeting with Ms. Banerjee, Mr. Yadav spoke in the same vein and stressed the need for a Third Front or an alliance with regional parties. Similarly, both Ms. Banerjee and Mr. Patnaik reaffirmed their commitment to a strong federal structure after their meeting.
The Trinamool president also maintains cordial relations with the JD(S) leader and the meeting comes ahead of the Karnataka assembly elections. The two parties have worked together in the past on various issues, including coordination for the presidential election in June last year.
Earlier, Mr Kumaraswamy, upon his arrival at the Kolkata airport, described Congress leader Rahul Gandhi’s disqualification as a Lok Sabha MP as “political vendetta of the BJP”.