Kolkata:
For the first time since becoming Prime Minister, Narendra Modi is visiting West Bengal over the weekend and the once-hostile Mamata Banerjee will meet him several times. The West Bengal chief minister insists it is all for Bengal's development. But the opposition suspects a quid pro quo between the BJP and the Trinamool Congress on issues like Trinamool support in Rajya Sabha to the CBI's probe in the Saradha scam.
Before the Lok Sabha polls, Mr Modi taunted Ms Banerjee about the tainted Saradha chit fund chief buying her paintings for crores. She threatened to tie a rope around Mr Modi's waist and send him to jail. She met the prime minister formally for the first time on March 9. Rivals say she has suddenly thawed.
"I have told before also, "
parde ke piche dosti aur maidaan mein kushti" meaning friends behind curtains and fighters on the field. This is their ideology. So if a friendship has developed behind the curtains then why hide it?" asked Surya Kanta Mishra of the CPM.
"Actually Mamata Banerjee realised the CBI enquiry into Saradha scam could embarrass her further. So now she is trying to make adjustment with Modiji so that he may give her relief from the enquiry," said Congress' Abdul Mannan.
Mr Banerjee cites courtesy and Bengal's development needs and, on the latter, she will meet PM Modi on Saturday evening, besides at public functions. "State demands. When he is coming, it is the courtesy of the government to meet the prime minister, to give some memorandum to him regarding development of the state, whatever we are facing nowadays," she said.
The BJP insists there is no new bonhomie. "Some are saying that we have joined hands but let me assure you that our ideologies are different and we cannot come together on equal terms," said Siddharth Nath Singh, BJP leader in charge of Bengal.
But all eyes this weekend will be on the chemistry between Ms Banerjee and PM Modi - acidic, as in the past, or a new compound.
Meanwhile, on Saturday, PM Modi will launch several social welfare schemes in Kolkata and on Sunday inaugurate an expanded and mordernised steel plant in Burnpur. He is also scheduled to visit Swami Atmasthanandaji, president of the Ram Krishna Math and Mission who he has considered his guru since the 1960s. The Swami is 97, ailing and in hospital since February 21.