Kolkata: Chandrababu Naidu arrives in Nabanna, to meet Mamata Banerjee shortly

In one of his attempts to construct a united Opposition to tackle the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the 2019 General Elections,Naidu arrived in the city and will meet his West Bengal counterpart Mamata Banerjee.
Naidu, who will be discussing the Opposition unity with the West Bengal Chief Minister, is likely to invite Mamata for an all-party meeting in New Delhi on Nov 22. Mamata is yet to confirm whether she will participate in the meeting on send a representative of her party Trinamool Congress (TMC) to attend the event.

Mamata and Naidu's meeting is not a rare incident as the two had vowed to work together when they were present at the swearing-in ceremony of Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy earlier this year. However, both the leaders had then vowed to form a federal front with an aim to strengthen the regional parties and also to defeat the BJP.

Interestingly, Naidu's stance changed weeks ago from now when he had personally met Congress president Rahul Gandhi. Though Naidu's political outfit Telegu Desam Party (TDP) emerged with its political movement against the Congress in Andhra Pradesh, the two parties have now shredded differences to contest the upcoming Telangana assembly polls.

Rahul, after meeting Naidu, too extended his hand to the TDP to work together both at the state and national levels.

After Rahul, Naidu even met Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy and former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda, who is also the Janata Dal (Secular) chief, to discuss the grand alliance.

Naidu, a former ally of the BJP, left the National Democratic Alliance (NDA)- which presently runs the central government- earlier this year over the issue of special status for Andhra Pradesh. The BJP government had denied to grant a special status to the southern state, prompting Naidu to leave the NDA.

Meanwhile, Mamata has already announced a mega rally on Jan 19, 2019, where she claimed all non-BJP party leaders, except from two outfits, will be present.

In a recent development, Naidu and Mamata blocked the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) from entering Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal respectively without the particular state's permission.

Alleging that the central government is using the CBI as a political tool to target the opposition parties, Mamata supported the Andhra Pradesh government saying, "Chandrababu Naidu's decision not to allow CBI in his state is absolutely right."