Mamata pays Sonia Gandhi courtesy visit

In the backdrop of a spate of violent incidents involving cadres of the CPM and the Trinamool Congress in recent days, Mamata Banerjee met the UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi on Saturday.

The meeting is being viewed as significant in the light of the Trinamool Congress chief’s recent letter to the Prime Minister, “expressing serious concerns on the price rise, while objecting to the recent hike in the prices of petroleum products”.

Petroleum minister S Jaipal Reddy walked into 10, Janpath just as Banerjee was exiting “fuelling speculations that Banerjee’s meeting with Gandhi was related to the price rise.

However, emerging from the meeting, Reddy denied he discussed the issue of petroleum prices with Gandhi. Trinamool Congress sources also denied such possibilities, saying it was just a courtesy call on Banerjee's part, as she had not met the UPA chairperson this year.