Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee couldn’t find time to meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in Kolkata on Saturday.
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Though Singh shared a dais with Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, Banerjee didn’t come to meet the PM. Trinamool leaders refused to comment, but Banerjee was invited to the programme but decided not to go as the Trinamool follows a policy of not sharing any platform with CPI(M) leaders.
She even led a rally during the afternoon — when Singh was at the Raj Bhavan meeting a Congress delegation — to protest the political violence in West Bengal.
Mamata has lately sharpened attacks on the Congress. She has been accusing the Centre on two counts — it never consulted her before sending security forces to Maoist-dominated Lalgarh, and second, the inflation issue.
Singh, who had come to the city on January 7 to visit communist leader Jyoti Basu at the hospital. Banerjee didn't meet him on that occasion too.
Her absence was mentioned when a 37-member Congress delegation went to meet the Prime Minister on Saturday.
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