File Photo: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee (Press Trust of India)
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who is in Delhi to meet with Prime Minister Narendra Modi to discuss flood relief, will meet Arvind Kejriwal over dinner tonight.
Ms Banerjee's meeting with PM Modi will take place tomorrow.
Tonight, the Delhi Chief Minister will meet Ms Banerjee at the residence of her nephew and parliamentarian Abhishek Banerjee. Sources say the menu is likely to be vegetarian, in honour of Mr Kejriwal.
Officials say it is a "courtesy meeting". But the dinner has generated buzz as Mamata Banerjee has backed Mr Kejriwal in his power battle with the central government.
Mr Kejriwal sees a kindred spirit in Mamata Banerjee, as they both have fought bitterly against the BJP and have refused to cede ground on powers of the state.
In May, as Mr Kejriwal's turf war with Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung peaked, Ms Banerjee tweeted: "Too much interference in the federal structure is unacceptable. The state government is an elected body. Central government is also an elected body. Every elected body has its own jurisdiction. One must respect the other."
Mr Kejriwal has also met another critic of PM Modi, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, more than once in the last few months.
Ahead of the Bihar election, Mr Kumar, who is running for a third term, has gained Mr Kejriwal's support - the Delhi leader's Aam Aadmi Party or AAP has said it will not put up any candidates in Bihar; when Mr Kejriwal ran for office in February, Mr Kumar's party had stayed out of the election.