M Venkaiah Naidu to visit Kolkata on December 6, meeting with Mamata Banerjee on cards

NEW DELHI: Union Minister M Venkaiah Naidu is likely to visit Kolkata on December 6 during which he may meet West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, whose Trinamool Congress is mounting attack on the government on the issue of black money.

Naidu, who holds charge of the Urban Development and Parliamentary Affairs ministries, told reporters here that the visit is in connection with the inauguration of the Hudco Place in Kolkata.

Dismissing any political significance of his proposed meeting with the Trinamool Congress chief, Naidu said whenever he visits a state it is always his endeavour to meet the Chief Minister.

Earlier in the day in the Lok Sabha, Naidu took potshots at the Trinamool Congress.

"You are losing ground... We have won Mumbai, now we are eyeing Kolkata," Naidu said taking a jibe at Trinamool, the ruling party of West Bengal which has been mounting attack on the government over black money.

Naidu was intervening during a discussion on the black money when Trinamool member Sudip Bandopadhyay got agitated over the minister's assertion that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was favoured by 72 per cent of the country's populace. Naidu cited a survey to claim so.

"Zameen khisak rahi hai... that is why you are getting so worked up," Naidu, a senior BJP leader, told the Trinamool MP.