Mamata Banerjee accepts Sonia Gandhi's Iftaar invite

KOLKATA: West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday accepted the Iftar invitation of Congress president Sonia Gandhi and assured her that a representative of her party Trinamool Congress, national spokesperson and Rajya Sabha MP Derek O’Brien, would attend the programme. “Thank you Sonia Gandhiji for your invitation to Iftar on Monday. My good wishes. As I am in Kolkata, Derek O’Brien will be in Delhi on our behalf,” Mamata tweeted on Saturday. According to political observers in Bengal, Mamata’s message to Sonia Gandhi is ‘clear and significant’. Party insiders said Mamata’s response to the invitation might form a new equation. “Even though we are seeing it as a courtesy on part of didi [as Mamata is popularly known], it might be the beginning for a new political equation. This is a good time to build an anti-NDA force. But it depends on Didi, how she would do it,” said a source in TMC.