West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday met Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar during her three days visit to Mumbai. Duting the meeting, Trinamool Congress National Secretary Abhishek Banerjee and NCP leader Praful Patel was also present.
The two supreme leaders' meet comes a day after the West Bengal CM met Shiv Sena MP Sanjay Raut and Maharashtra Environment Minister Aaditya Thackeray at a hotel in Mumbai.
The meeting was seen as an outreach to fellow opposition leaders by the Trinamool Congress supremo.
Banerjee, on a visit to Maharashtra, was scheduled to meet Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray earlier, but as he is unwell, she met his son and minister Aaditya Thackeray.
Aaditya also gave her a copy of a coffee- table book of his father's photographs, sources added.
Earlier in the day, Banerjee visited the famous Siddhi Vinayak temple here.
The West Bengal chief minister also paid her respects at the memorial of police constable Tukaram Ombale who died fighting terrorists during the 2008 Mumbai terror attack.
Meanwhile, earlier in the day on Wednesday suggested to the Congress that an advisory council comprising prominent personalities from civil society be set up to give a direction to the opposition, but rued that the plan did not materialise.
If all regional parties come together, it would be easy to defeat the BJP, Banerjee said while interacting with some civil society members here.
"We want to say BJP hatao, desh bachao," she said, adding that her party Trinamool Congress (TMC) will not contest the forthcoming Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh.
"I don't want my opposition to make their own strategy. So, I am not revealing much," she said.
Banerjee is on a three-day visit to Mumbai to meet leaders of the Shiv Sena and the NCP, amid a strain in ties between the TMC and the Congress.
After its landslide victory in West Bengal earlier this year, the TMC inducted several Congress leaders in its fold. Recently, 12 out of 17 Congress MLAs in Meghalaya defected to the TMC, making it the principal opposition party.
(With agency inputs)
