Didi in PM's Team Dhaka - CM accepts invitation from Modi

Modi, Mamata

TT, May 28: Chief minister Mamata Banerjee is scheduled to accompany Prime Minister Narendra Modi on his visit to Dhaka on June 6, scaling up their new-found amity and shedding the misgivings that had prompted her to skip a similar tour with Manmohan Singh less than four years ago.

"The chief minister will go along with Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Bangladesh next month. We hope this visit will strengthen the relations between the two Bengals and also between the two countries," state education minister Partha Chatterjee said.

Sources in Nabanna said external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj called up Mamata today and requested her to join the delegation travelling with the Prime Minister.

"The chief minister agreed to be a part of the delegation. Soon after the external affairs minister's call, a formal invitation letter for the chief minister arrived," said an official.

But till 8pm, the foreign office in Delhi had not received a formal confirmation from Bengal. PMO officials were cautious, probably because of the last-minute pullout by Mamata in 2011.

In September 2011, Mamata had pulled out at the last minute from then Prime Minister Singh's visit to Bangladesh, where the signing of the Teesta water-sharing treaty topped the agenda. Mamata refused to give her nod to the formula for sharing the Teesta waters with the neighbouring country and backed out.

The Modi-led government at the Centre has already succeeded in making Mamata change her mind on the Land Boundary Agreement, which was also opposed by the Bengal chief minister initially.

According to Trinamul leaders, by agreeing to accompany Modi, Mamata has ensured that the Centre would not take all the credit for the Land Boundary Agreement.

"Without the state government's nod, the Land Boundary Agreement would not have been possible. Didi will never let others take sole credit for it," said a Trinamul minister.

Mamata gave her nod to the Land Boundary Agreement after the promise of a Rs 3,008-crore compensation package. The rehabilitation and compensation package for those who would come over to India has already been approved by the Centre.

"Didi feels that she has succeeded in protecting the state's interests over the Land Boundary Agreement. So, she has no problem going to Dhaka," said the source close to Mamata.

The Modi government still needs to make Mamata come around on the tricky Teesta water-sharing treaty. Union home minister Rajnath Singh, during his one-day visit to Calcutta this week, had expressed confidence that a breakthrough would emerge soon.

The water-sharing formula mooted in 2011 remains confidential but it is believed that India would have received a little over 50 per cent water in the rainy season and around 60 per cent during the dry spell.

Mamata wanted 80 per cent for the Indian side. The Centre is now trying to tweak the formula. 

It will still not raise India's share to the level Mamata has demanded but any increase will help the chief minister claim vindication for skipping the earlier tour and driving a hard bargain for the sake of Bengal.

Sources close to the chief minister said that she was not expecting any breakthrough in the water treaty during this trip.

However, Mamata has been trying to change a perception that she is against Bangladesh. She visited Dhaka last February and told Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to "have faith" in her ability to resolve the Teesta issue.

In New Delhi, a section of the BJP dealing with Bengal was caught unawares by Mamata's decision to accept the invitation.

A few hours before Chatterjee made the announcement in Calcutta, a senior BJP leader had said in Delhi the party would slip into an aggressive mode in Bengal after Modi's trip to Dhaka.

He said the objective was to remove the perception that the party had gone soft on Trinamul after the Prime Minister and chief minister exchanged assurances of "shoulder-to-shoulder" cooperation earlier this month. The leader had no idea that Mamata had agreed to be part of the Prime Minister's delegation.

Another leader, the BJP's Bengal minder Sidharth Nath Singh, later said: "Mamata Banerjee is travelling as the chief minister of West Bengal with other chief ministers of states that share a border with Bangladesh. The trip is in national interest under the leadership of Narendra Modi."

The junior minister for coal and energy, Piyush Goyal, said that if Mamata went to Dhaka as part of the Prime Minister's delegation, it would be an example of "cooperative federalism".