Mamata Banerjee cancels meeting with P Chidambaram

NEW DELHI: An upset West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday cancelled her scheduled meeting with Finance Minister P Chidambaram and left for Kolkata, a day after she was gheraoed and her minister Amit Mitra manhandled by Left protesters here.

Hours after facing the ire of the Left activists at the Planning Commission, Banerjee had also cancelled her appointment last evening with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who expressed regret over the incident.

As Mitra was hospitalised at the AIIMS last evening and kept under observation, Singh spoke to Banerjee after her office called up the PMO to cancel the meeting scheduled with him saying she was unwell and her blood pressure had dipped.

The Prime Minister also enquired about her well-being, sources close to the chief minister said.

They said the meeting with Chidambaram and a press conference she was to address in the evening have been cancelled.

Banerjee and Mitra were the target of the wrath of CPI-M and its students' wing SFI's activists who were protesting the death of their comrade Sudipta Gupta in police custody in Kolkata last week.

Some Trinamool Congress workers, led by party leader Mukul Roy, also staged a protest gathering at Jantar Mantar here.

Giving a new twist to the incident, Trinamool MP Sukhendu Shekar Roy claimed it was a "murderous attack" on Banerjee.