Mamata likely to visit Bangladesh 17 March

Chief minister of India's West Bengal Mamata Banerjee is likely to visit Bangladesh to attend a programme marking the birth centenary of Bangladesh’s founding president Sheikh Mujibur Rahman on 17 March, reports The Statesman.

Father of the nation Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s daughter and prime minister Sheikh Hasina has invited Miss Banerjee to attend the event.

An official said that Banerjee will send the invitation regarding her visit to the external affairs ministry as per protocol. Once she gets the ministry’s approval she would leave for Bangladesh to attend the programme, he added, says the English-language Indian daily.

Banerjee went to Bangladesh to attend a programme on International Mother Language Day on 21 February 2015.

In June 2015, she was present at an inaugural ceremony of the Kolkata-Dhaka- Agartola bus service and both Hasina and Indian prime minister Narendra Modi were present on the occasion.

In November 2019, during the inaugural ceremony of the pink ball Test match between India and Bangladesh at Eden Gardens, Hasina and Banerjee held a closed-door meeting for nearly an hour.