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Fifty four Buckingham Gate, St James' Court, a Taj Hotel in London, will be West Bengal Chief Minister, Mamata Banerjee's address for her four-day trip starting July 26. The leader who came to power by heading an agitation against Nano, a Tata product, as it appears, has balanced her administrative and electoral priorities.
There have been glimpses of such compartmentalisation over the past four years, however. At the Chief Minister's star-studded 2013 investors' meet in Mumbai, the Tata group was represented by TCS Managing Director, N Chandrasekharan; last year five Tata group MDs called on the Chief Minister to discuss their companies. Of course, that doesn't mean there is any going back on Singur. The fate of the land is yet to decided in Supreme Court.
It is no secret that Banerjee has consciously avoided any personal association with the Tata brand since the 2008 Singur movement. This often reached an extreme level with her Cabinet ministers castigating local TMC leaders for driving a Nano. But that could be in for a change.
The Chief Minister, state Finance Minister Amit Mitra, Kolkata's Mayor Sovan Chatterjee, Trinamool MPs Derek O' Brien and Sugata Bose, actor-turned Parliamentarian Dev, Kolkata Police Commissioner Surajit Kar Purkayastha and senior bureaucrats are expected to put up at St James' Court, some of the delegation members said. Chatterjee said, he was not aware of where he would staying during the visit.
The size of the delegation is around 30 with a little more than half from the business side. The highlight of Banerjee's trip will be an interactive session with Indo-Bristish business leaders on July 27 in London, jointly organised by UK India Business Council (UKIBC) and the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci). The latter is said to be the partner for this government visit.
The Chief Minister will make an effort to reach out to investors at the special session "Bengal in London". As part of Ficci's annual summer delegation a number of leading business leaders like Godrej group Chairman Adi Godrej, HSBC's Naina Lal Kidwai, Y K Modi all former Ficci presidents are likely to be among the attendants, along with current Ficci President Jyotsna Suri and senior vice President Harshavardhan Neotia.
However, British Prime Minister David Cameron, who had extended an invitation to Banerjee during his 2013 visit to Kolkata, will be on an Europe tour in the wake of the Greece debt crisis.
But the Chief Minister is expected to visit the Buckingham Palace on July 27 where she will call on the Duke of York Prince Andrew. Also, the Speaker of Britain's House of Lords is likely to be present.
On the same day, Banerjee has a meeting with UK's Employment Minister Priti Patel at the UK foreign office and a few memorandum of understanding (MoU) are likely to be signed for mutual cooperation. Among other things, Mamata Banerjee has several times expressed her keenness to have a Kolkata Giant Wheel, much like the London Eye.
On July 28, a cultural event at the Natural History Museum is likely be held where members from Banerjee's cultural clan could participate.
The business side of the delegation is hoping that the UK visit would translate to more success than the Singapore trip last August which didn't bring major investment to the state.
