Mamata Banerjee to visit Bangladesh with Modi

Kolkata: Putting all speculations to rest, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has decided to accompany Prime Minister Narendra Modi on his two-day Bangladesh visit starting June 6. Sources at Nabanna, the state Secretariat, said a formal invitation from Mr Modi for the Dhaka visit reached the CM on Thursday and she immediately decided to respond positively. It is, however, not yet clear if Ms Banerjee will travel from Delhi to Dhaka with the PM or will fly directly to the Bangladesh capital from Kolkata.

During his two-day West Bengal visit earlier this month, Mr Modi had sounded out Ms Banerjee about the Dhaka visit.Sources said at their meeting at Raj Bhavan, he had personally invited her to accompany him on his maiden visit to Bangladesh. Ms Banerjee had, however, kept the Centre guessing.

If she finally boards the plane to Dhaka with Mr Modi, it will be seen as another display of the PM’s remarkable how-to-win-friends-and-influence- people skills. Ms Banerjee was earlier scheduled to accompany former PM Manmohan Singh to Dhaka in September 2011, a few months after she had come to power, but backed out at the last moment.