Two days after dissociating herself from the Opposition- sponsored meeting convened by Congress president Sonia Gandhi on 13 January against the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and National Register of Citizens (NRC), chief minister Mamata Banerjee today met Prime Minister Narendra Modi at a short notice at Raj Bhavan, triggering sharp reaction from the Left and the Congress which saw in the meeting “a telltale evidence of a tacit understanding” between the two leaders on the two raging issues.

Miss Banerjee, however, later said she had communicated to Mr Modi her party’s stand against the CAA-NRC and urged him to withdraw the legislation. “I called on the PM as per the protocol. During the meeting I have urged him to release funds worth Rs 38,000 crore due to the state,” she said. The Opposition however, was quick to question her assertion and asked how the CM “could discuss the state’s funds crunch with the Prime Minister without taking a single file with her or top officials accompanying her.”

In the evening, the chief minister had to intervene after Left-affiliated students laid siege to a venue of an anti-CAA protest organised by the Trinamul Congress Chhatra Parishad, denouncing her meeting the Prime Minister. The incident occurred around 7-30 p.m. when the students of Jadavpur, Presidency and other universities forced their way through the barricade and started to demonstrate in front of a stage erected by the TMCP. The CM, who had accompanied the Prime Minister at Millennium Park after earlier speaking at the TMCP demonstration, rushed to the dharna site after tension mounted following a scuffle between the police and SFI activists at Dorina Crossing, where the TMCP was organising the demonstration.

The chief minister, who was seen arguing with the Left students, stayed put there for hours in a bid to cool tempers. Earlier, at the sit-in demonstration organised by the TMCP at Rani Rashmoni Road, Miss Banerjee that the notification on CAA which was issued by the Centre yesterday would not be implemented in Bengal as it is “unconstitutional” and “illegal”. “We don’t accept the CAA notification and would not implement it in our state. This is unconstitutional and illegal. Just because you (the BJP-run Central government) have power you can’t do whatever you wish,” Banerjee said while addressing the Trinamul Congress Chhatra Parishad’s demonstration against CAA, NRC and NPR.

The meeting at Raj Bhavan was held at the height of protests by both the ruling Trinamul Congress, with the party supremo leading them from the front, and the Left and the Congress. Modi arrived in the city for a two-day programme and was greeted by protests against the CAA and “Go Back” slogans. Hundreds of protesters holding black flags demonstrated outside Kolkata airport Gate Number 1. The police had put up a barricade to prevent them from crossing over to the airport side.

From the airport Mr Modi took a helicopter to the Royal Calcutta Turf Club (RCTC) and from there left for the Raj Bhavan. As his convoy sped away from the sprawling RCTC, protesters stood at the AJC Bose Road flyover flank and waved national flags and black flags shouting slogans against CAA. SFI activists assembled near Jadavpur University, Golpark, College Street, Hatibagan and Esplanade areas with placards which read ‘Students Against Fascism’. They burnt effigies of the PM and Union home minister Amit Shah. The state administration had made elaborate security arrangements for the visit. There was heavy deployment of police personnel at different crucial points of the city.