Mamata Banerjee meeting PM Modi during her visit to New Delhi in March
Hours after his arrival in Dhaka Saturday morning, Prime Minister Narendra Modi may hold a one-on-one conversation with West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee before his meeting with Bangladesh PM Sheikh Hasina.
According to sources, Ms Banerjee is expected to visit Mr Modi at the hotel where he is staying in Dhaka around 3 pm local time. After the meeting they will leave for the function to sign the land boundary agreement at the Ms Hasina's office.
This will be Ms Banerjee's second meeting with Mr Modi in less than a month. The two leaders met last month when the Prime Minister visited Kolkata and Asansol.
The two had earlier met in Delhi on March 9 when Ms Banerjee visited Delhi seeking a waiver of the huge debt her government is burdened with. That was the first time Ms Banerjee had met Mr Modi after he became Prime Minister in May last year.
Ms Banerjee arrives in Dhaka on Friday, a day ahead of PM Modi's two day visit to the neighbouring country and was given a royal welcome by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's government. Soon after her arrival, Ms Hasina telephoned Ms Banerjee to welcome her.
The West Bengal chief minister is scheduled to participate in two functions - the flagging off of the Kolkata-Dhaka-Agartala bus service and the signing of the Land Boundary Agreement - and leave for Kolkata in the evening.
The West Bengal Chief Minister reportedly stood in the way of inking of a crucial deal over sharing of the common Teesta River at the last minute during former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's Dhaka tour in 2011.
Ahead of PM Modi's Bangladesh tour, India made it clear that the Teesta deal would not be signed during his visit this time as India was yet to reach an internal consensus on the matter.