By IANS,
Kolkata : Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee called on ailing former West Bengal chief minister Jyoti Basu Saturday night and said the veteran Marxist had congratulated her on her party’s thumping win in the Lok Sabha polls.
However, Banerjee emerged from the meeting a trifle annoyed, saying Basu had been tutored not to say anything else to her.
“I had gone there basically to enquire about his health. I know he is not keeping well. He congratulated me. But I think he has been tutored not to say anything more,” Banerjee said after coming out of Basu’s residence Indira Bhawan in the satellite township of Salt Lake.
“There was someone else there also,” she said, implying that Basu’s party Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) did not allow her to have a one-on-one with the nonagenarian leader.
Banerjee said: “I did not go there to discuss politics. But yes, I might have have had such discussions if he was alone. But someone else was also present”.
Later, Banerjee went to the residence of another former state chief minister Siddhartha Shankar Ray.
The octogenarian Ray, a leading legal luminary, was the last Congress chief minister of the state.
After exchanging greetings Banerjee discussed several constitutional matters with him.
Banerjee was accompanied by Union Minister of State for Shipping Mukul Roy and leader of the opposition in the state assembly Partha Chatterjee.