Kolkata:
Just a few hours before
Narendra Modi flew into Kolkata to keep his date with Industry, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee left town. Her political rival, the Left, sniggered and said the West Bengal Chief Minister is "shy of meeting Modi."
This morning as he visited the famous Dakshineshwar temple, the Gujarat Chief Minister smiled and waved, much at home. At his meeting with business leaders he will talk about growth in Gujarat and will pitch his state as an investment destination.
The BJP says it expects a full house - a 1000 cards were distributed, the organisers said. But some top names will not be there. Industry leaders like Sanjeev Goenka of the RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group, Harsh Neotia of the Ambuja Neotia group and Sanjay Budhia of the PATTON Group, are out of town. There is speculation that they are skipping the Modi interaction as they do not want to upset the mercurial Mamata Banerjee, but the organisers insist their absence is just a coincidence.
Bengal's industrialists have only now begun warming up to Ms Banerjee, but not enough yet to invest in her state. Narendra Modi on the other hand is a super hit with corporate India.
This tale of two chief ministers has complex dynamics. Mamata Banerjee's biggest run-in with Industry - the Singur protests which forced Tata Motors to shift their Nano plant out of Bengal - became Mr Modi's triumph when he successfully invited Ratan Tata to set up his plant in Gujarat instead. Ms Banerjee also acquired from the Singur incident a reputation for being anti-Industry, which she has attempted to shake off desperately ever since she became the chief minister of a state deep in debt and crying for investment.
She is in Delhi today to seek financial help from the Centre.
(Mamata to meet PM today to seek 'economic justice' for Bengal)The BJP in Bengal says Ms Banerjee's government has not made it easy to welcome Mr Modi to Kolkata. The party had tried to book a stadium that seats 12,000 people for a reception, but could not get the venue. When the BJP wrote to Ms Banerjee to help, it says she refused.