Mamata Banerjee Went To Discuss Formation Of Third Front With Naveen Patnaik: Here's What Happened

Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee has received a solid snub from Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik. 

Banerjee, who called on Patnaik at the latter’s residence at the end of her three-day private visit to the neighbouring state on Thursday (23 March), was firmly told by the Odisha Chief Minister’s aides before the meeting that he (Patnaik) is not interested in discussing politics with her. 

The Bengal Chief Minister has been trying to cobble together a ‘third front’ that’s equidistant from both the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). She has been able to rope in only former Uttar Pradesh chief minister and Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav to her venture so far. 

Top leaders of the Trinamool Congress told Swarajya that their party supremo was hoping that Patnaik would lend his support to her ‘third front’ project.

“The Odisha CM’s support would have definitely given a boost to this (third front) project. We were expecting his support since he has good ties with our party chief,” a senior Trinamool functionary, who is also a cabinet minister, told Swarajya. 

But senior leaders of the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) who were liaising with their counterparts in the Trinamool Congress told Swarajya that it was made clear to Banerjee’s associates that Naveen Patnaik is not interested in a ‘third front’. 

“It was made very clear to the Trinamool leaders who were coordinating the Bengal Chief Minister’s visit that our leader (Patnaik) is not inclined to discuss politics with Banerjee. They (the Trinamool leaders) were told to ask Banerjee not to raise political issues during her meeting with our leader,” a BJD leader, who holds an important cabinet portfolio, told Swarajya over phone from Bhubaneshwar. 

But Banerjee, said a BJD leader who was privy to what happened during the 40-minute meeting between the chief ministers of the two states, did make two futile attempts to discuss politics. 

The Odisha Chief Minister reportedly shook his head and made a dismissive gesture while diverting the topic immediately both the times. Banerjee was left red-faced. 

The BJD leader told Swarajya that the “non-political discussions were held in a cordial atmosphere”. Mamata Banerjee only outlined her plans to build a ‘Bangla Niwas’ (a state guesthouse) for poor pilgrims from Bengal at the seaside temple town of Puri and the plans to build a replica of the Jagannath Mandir at Digha in Bengal. 

Patnaik told Banerjee that his government would extend whatever help is required to build the ‘Bangla Niwas’ in Puri. But he merely nodded and smiled while Banerjee outlined the plans for the replica of the Jagannath Mandir in Digha. 

That, say those who know him, indicated he was amused by Banerjee’s plans to build a Jagannath Mandir replica at Digha, a seaside getaway in Bengal popular among middle-class Bengalis, which is about 330 kilometres north of Puri. 

Banerjee also requested her Odisha counterpart to facilitate supply of iron ore from his state to steel plants in Bengal. “The Bengal CM also proposed a Bengal-Odisha industrial corridor. Our CM merely asked Banerjee to send concrete proposals which he would forward to the state industries department and experts for consideration,” said the Odisha minister. 

Banerjee, it is learnt, made two attempts to steer the conversation towards politics, but the Odisha CM firmly resisted that and made it clear through his gestures that he wasn’t interested in discussing such matters at all. 

The Odisha Chief Minister, however, told reporters that the two discussed the need to “keep the federal structure in the country strong and permanent”. 

Patnaik said this while responding to questions from reporters if the two chief ministers had discussed “national politics” or the “third front”. Patnaik kept on insisting that it was only a “courtesy meeting”. 

“But nothing much should be read into our chief minister’s statement. He never suggested that the federal structure in the country was under threat. It was meant to be a face-saver for Mamata Banerjee,” the BJD leader said. 

After a couple of top BJD leaders, who are close associates of Naveen Patnaik, told Trinamool leaders coordinating Banerjee’s visit to Odisha that Patnaik was not inclined to discuss politics with Banerjee, the Trinamool leaders pleaded that Patnaik provide Banerjee with a face-saver. 

That’s because top Trinamool leaders had already briefed reporters in Kolkata that Banerjee would solicit Patnaik’s support for her ‘third front’. “They (the Trinamool leaders) pleaded that if discussions between the two CMs remain apolitical and if that’s made public, it would mean a huge embarrassment for Banerjee,” the BJD leader said. 

"We had a few rounds of talks over the phone and it was ultimately decided that a general statement about keeping the federal structure of the country intact would be made by our CM,” he added. 

That was a face-saver, though a very weak one, for Mamata Banerjee who had hoped to discuss national politics with her Odisha counterpart and rope him in for her ‘third front’ project. 

Banerjee flew to Bhubaneswar on Tuesday (21 March) on a Dassault Falcon 2000 business jet that was leased by the Bengal government in 2021. She offered prayers at Puri’s Jagannath Mandir on Wednesday and then drove back to Bhubaneshwar for her meeting with the Odisha CM. 

BJD leaders told Swarajya that Naveen Patnaik was left unhappy with Mamata Banerjee’s attempts to steer the conversation towards politics at their meeting. 

“It had been made very clear to Trinamool leaders that our CM does not want to discuss anything even remotely political. But despite that, the Bengal CM made sly attempts to veer the discussion towards that taboo topic. That was not liked at all by our CM,” said the Odisha cabinet minister. 

Banerjee, of course, is unfazed. She is slated to meet former Karnataka chief minister H D Kumaraswamy today (24 March) to take her ‘third front’ project forward. But in the absence of support from important political parties, the project seems doomed from the start. Like, it may be mentioned, many of her ambitious projects.