Mamata Banerjee to meet Naveen Patnaik in Odisha today amid third front talks
Bhubaneswar/Kolkata/IBNS: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will on Thursday hold a "courtesy meeting" with her Odisha counterpart Naveen Patnaik here amid the former's renewed push for a third front in national politics.
Mamata's meeting with Patnaik comes days after she was visited by former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister and Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav in Kolkata.
Both Mamata and Akhilesh gave call for a front which will be an alternative to both the governing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and a beleaguered opposition force Congress.
Agreeing with Mamata's new national political stance, Akhilesh had said, "In Bengal, we are with Mamata Didi. Right now, our stand is we want to maintain equi-distance from both the BJP and the Congress."
After her Trinamool Congress was defeated by the Left-backed Congress in Sagardighi byelection at home, Mamata announced her party will fight alone in West Bengal in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
Mamata's Trinamool is facing massive corruption allegations on various fronts with some of its top leaders being arrested.
Former West Bengal Education Minister and now suspended Trinamool leader Partha Chatterjee was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate after a huge sum of money was recovered from his close aide Arpita Mukherjee's flat in connection with the teacher recruitment scam.
Trinamool district president of Birbhum, Anubrata Mondal, is now in Delhi's Tihar Jail months after he was arrested in connection with the coal scam.
