Suvendu holds late-night talks with NCPI’s Sudip Bandopadhyaya, skips Delhi visit

After cancelling his scheduled visit to the national capital, West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari held a late-night meeting with Sudip Bandopadhyaya at the state secretariat Nabanna on Monday.

The talks with the veteran MP was followed by the postponement of Adhikari’s much-awaited interaction with the 20 Nationalist Citizens Party of India (NCPI) MPs who had quit the Trinamool Congress.

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The meeting between Adhikari and the NCPI parliamentarians was earlier scheduled for 1 pm on Tuesday at the Banga Bhavan in New Delhi. However, sources said the chief minister was unable to travel to the national capital due to several urgent administrative engagements in West Bengal.

No fresh date for the meeting has been announced.

The postponement took place hours after Birbhum MP Satabdi Roy had confirmed Tuesday’s interaction with the Chief Minister in Delhi. Roy had said the MPs were looking forward to raising issues and concerns that they had not been able to voice earlier within the party framework.

Adhikari, who was in North Bengal on Monday, came to Kolkata and walked straight to Nabanna where Bandopadhyay was waiting for him.

The 20 NCPI MPs were also invited to an NDA meeting, fuelling fresh political speculation over the Tripura-based party’s future course at the national level.

Political observers believe the outcome of the NDA meeting could determine the next phase of the NCPI’s political strategy, amid discussions over its possible alignment with the BJP.

Meanwhile, the Kalighat faction of the Trinamool Congress, led by the party’s national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee, has approached the Speaker seeking the disqualification of the 20 NCPI MPs under the anti-defection law after they left the party.