Mamata Banerjee

Reacting to a Twitter message from senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh accusing Trinamool of poaching in Congress in Goa, Meghalaya, Tripura and other states like that of West Bengal and this serving BJP's objectives, Banerjee said that there no issue in it since her party has not contested in several other states where Congress had contested like Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.

Trinamool insiders said that as per the present schedule, the Chief Minister is likely to reach Patna on the evening of June 11, which is a day ahead of the crucial opposition meeting. However, it was tight-lipped about the reasons for the Chief Minister's early arrival and whether there is any possibility of any separate meeting of her with any leader of any non-BJP party or her counterpart of any non-BJP ruled state.

However, a return communique has come from the Union government, stating that only chief ministers can attend the Niti Aayog meeting to be chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Besides Banerjee, two AAP Chief Ministers -- Delhi's Arvind Kejriwal and Punjab's Bhagwant Mann -- have also announced their decision to abstain from the meeting.

Under the changed system, sources said, any individual or institutional entity having taken any vested land on long-term lease will be able to get the ownership of the land after paying 15 per cent of the market price of the same land to the state government. The decision was taken by the state cabinet recently. However, this changed facility.

While the BJP is poised to get the ordinance passed in the Lok Sabha owing to its numerical superiority, the situation might turn tricky in the Upper House where the Trinamool Congress has 12 MPs. Banerjee made this announcement after an hour-long meeting with Kejriwal and Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann here.

"Abhishek was in Bankura then. The officers who went to his house to serve the notice had said that if the same was accepted, the results could be felt the next day," Banerjee said at a joint press conference with her counterparts in Delhi and Punjab, Arvind Kejriwal and Bhagwant Mann, respectively.

Sources from the state unit of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) said that the Delhi chief minister is expected to arrive in Kolkata on Tuesday morning and on the same afternoon he will have a one-on-one meeting with Mamata Banerjee at the state secretariat of Nabanna. Kejriwal is supposed to fly back to New Delhi on the same evening.

On the contrary, Trinamool Congress, then having an alliance with the BJP at the national level and the prime opposition party in West Bengal ended up winning in just one seat and BJP being reduced to zero. From 2004 to 2009, the current West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was the only Trinamool Congress member in the Lok Sabha.

In her message the chief minister referred to March 20, 2011, the day when she was sworn-in as the chief minister for the first time after Trinamool Congress came to power ending the 34-year-old Left Front rule in the state.

"ED and CBI are extremely scared of Trinamool Congress. This is because Trinamool Congress is with common people and the common people are with Trinamool Congress. Our party is constituted of the common people," Mamata Banerjee said while virtually addressing a party rally at Chawk Patrasayer in Bankura district.