Team News Riveting
Kolkata, December 30
High drama prevailed at Howrah Station on Friday as a visibly annoyed West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee refused to get up on the dais at the programme that was to be virtually attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi who was in grief.
Modi’s mother passed away today morning. Soon after the funeral, he got into the work. Though the Prime Minister was supposed to visit Kolkata to inaugurate projects worth Rs 7800 crore, he attended the programme virtually from Ahmedabad.
The flagging off of Vande Bharat express to New Jalpaiguri from Howrah was one of the events. Banerjee seemed upset by the loud sloganeering from a section of the invited crowd at the railway station and refused to sit on the dais.
The Railway Minister, Ashwini Vaishnaw and Governor C V Ananda Bose tried to pacify her but it did not bear fruit. The Chief Minister chose to sit on a chair along with the audience. The Vande Bharat Express connecting Howrah and New Jalpaiguri, the gateway to the northeast, as well as several development projects, was virtually inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday.
This was not the first time that Mamata Banerjee had created a scene at the Prime Minister’s programme. But political observers felt this time it was not the right occasion as the Prime Minister was in grief.
The reaction of Banerjee was political as the ruling Trinamool Congress feared BJP bagging all the credits for the projects. Besides Vande Bharat express, the Prime Minister inaugurated the Joka-Taratala stretch of the purple line of Calcutta Metro.
The Prime Minister also laid the foundation stones of sewerage projects for Bengal worth over Rs 2,550 crore and the redevelopment of the New Jalpaiguri station.
