October 19, 2008

Speculation over Mamata, Amar, Pranab meet

Kolkata (PTI),19th October: Speculation is rife over an impending political realignment in West Bengal ahead of the Lok Sabha elections following a meeting between Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh and External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee in Delhi.

Banerjee and Singh went to Mukherjee's residence in the national capital on Friday night after addressing a rally at Jaminagar and was with him for about an hour, sources in the Trinamool Congress and Congress said here on Saturday.

A state Congress leader, who did not want to be named, said, "the issue of a possible alliance between the Trinamool Congress and Congress obviously figured in the discussions."

The leader pointed out that Mamata has been jointly organising programmes with the SP general secretary and has distanced herself from the NDA for quite quite some time now.
He said even BJP leader leader Sushma Swaraj had also said Mamata was no longer in the NDA.
West Bengal Congress working president Subrata Mukherjee told PTI, "I cannot say right now whether there is any possibility of political realignment out of Mamata's meeting with Pranabda. I have not talked to Pranabda as yet. So I cannot say anything about it."

Banerjee was quoted by a Bengali daily here as saying "I and Amarda met Pranabda, only to demand institution of a judicial probe into the Jamianagar encounter by the Centre through him."

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