Senior Congress leader Sushil Shinde met Mamata Banerjee at Nabanna

KOLKATA: In an interesting development, former home minister and a senior Congress leader Sushil Shinde today met Mamata Banerjee at Nabanna (state secretariat) in Kolkata.

Shinde was here to attend the wedding ceremony of R P Goenka’s grandson, Shashwat Goenka. Shashwat is the son of industrialist Sanjiv Goenka.

After the brief meeting with the chief minister, Shinde told the media persons that it was ‘not a political meeting’. “I am here to attend the wedding ceremony of R P Goenka’s grandson. R P Goenka was my colleague in the Parliament and we are family friends. I reached Kolkata early and thought of meeting Mamata Banerjee. She is like my sister,”Shinde told the reporters on the sidelines. Ruling out any communication about the electoral alliance with TMC, he said, “We did not discuss any political issue today.”

Significantly, the leaders of the West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee were clueless about the meeting. Omprakash Mishra, general secretary of PCC told ET, “We have no idea about the meeting. We were not informed.We think that there is no political connotation to it. ”

However, political corners are abuzz over a probable alliance between Congress and TMC, instead of Congress and CPM. Shinde is being seen as an emissary of Congress High Command Sonia Gandhi. He might have been sent to start the negotiation, said a senior leader of TMC on condition of anonymity.