The Congress may think its alliance with Mamata Banerjee allows it a share of being a genuine anti-Left force but the railway minister is leaving no stone unturned to corner all perceptions to such effect. An engagement in Cambridge university on ?Popular Anti-Left Movement in India? in September is another move in this regard.
Banerjee has been busy in the last few months trying to leverage the entire anti-Left front feeling in West Bengal and building a national and even international profile for herself.
The speaking engagement in Cambridge is preceded by Banerjee?s inauguration of a train from Kolkata to Dhaka on August 7, called Sonar Tori or golden boat-?named after a poem by Rabindranath Tagore.
?The train will be the railways way of marking the 150th birth anniversary of Gurudev. Mamata will board the train to Dhaka where Bangaldesh?s Sheikh Haseen Wajed will join her and they will jointly inaugurate it,? said a senior aide of Banerjee.
Apart from the Dhaka trip ?which may win brownie points for her in West Bengal ? Banerjee will also be travelling to France. ?In England, she will be addressing a seminar in Cambridge university and chairing a meet on railway infrastructure. In France, several projects have been pending regarding the freight corridor and a proposed bullet train, which will be discussed,? said the source.
?Mamata realises that leading a popular movement and governing are two different things and she wants to show people that she can do both,? said the aide. ?A large chunk of the educated middle class has started supporting didi,? the source added.
After Singur and Nandigram, Banerjee also wants to dispel the anti-industry image that she has. Those were agitations to protect the interests of farmers, and she is interested in industrial development, the source remarked.
While the dates for the visit to England and France have not been finalised, the train to Dhaka has been fixed. Banerjee is hoping that her shrill image which has catapulted her to centrestage will not impede further progress.