Mamata Banerjee to meet Sharad Pawar on Dec 1; Thackeray declines meet due to ill-health

Update at 2:00 PM: Sena MP Sanjay Raut & Aaditya Thackeray to meet Mamata

Ahead of Mamata Banerjee's 3-day visit to Mumbai, Shiv Sena on Tuesday, stated that Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray will be unable to meet the TMC chief due to his ill-health. Banerjee had announced that she will be discussing certain state-related issues with the Sena chief. The 61-year-old Shiv Sena Supremo recently underwent minor surgery for his spine and is recuperating.

Mamata to meet Pawar, Thackeray to skip amid illhealth

On the other hand, Sharad Pawar will meet Banerjee on Tuesday at 3 PM at his Silver Oaks residence on Wednesday - 1 December. Taking to Twitter, NCP spokesperson Nawab Malik stated that the visit will be a 'courtesy visit'. Her visit to Mumbai comes days after her Delhi visit where she met Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Kirti Azad, Pawan Varma, Ashok Tanwar and Subramanian Swamy.

Mamata's Mumbai visit

 Banerjee will be on a three-day visit to Mumbai from November 30 and was scheduled to meet NCP supremo Sharad Pawar and her Maharashtra counterpart Uddhav Thackeray. She is also expected to meet industrialists in Mumbai on December 1 and invite them to Bengal Global Business Summit, to be held in April next year. Banerjee has been eyeing to make inroads into western India as TMC aggressively campaigns against BJP in Goa.

TMC - Congress ties

In July, Banerjee embarked on a 5-day journey to Delhi huddling up with many Opposition leaders, hinting at a 2024 coalition spearheaded by her. After meeting top Congress leaders - Kamal Nath and Anand Sharma, she also met Congress chief Sonia Gandhi at her residence where her son Rahul Gandhi was also present. Later, the CM met with her Delhi counterpart Arvind Kejriwal along with her nephew Abhishek Banerjee and claimed 'Khela will happen across India'.

Since then, Congress-TMC ties have soured as several top top-notch Congress leaders have jumped ship to TMC like -  ex-Goa CM Luizinho Faleiro, Sushmita Dev, ex-Meghalaya CM Mukul Sangma, Kirti Azad. On Monday, TMC refused to attend the Opposition party convened by Congress stating it was neither an electoral ally nor a govt partner of Congress. TMC, which is expanding into Goa, Tripura, eyes to emerge as a focal point of Opposition parties for a probable 2024 battle between Mamata and Modi.