Bhattacharjee leaves Mukherjee’s residence after the meeting on Sunday. (Pabitra Das)

Calcutta, July 27: Prakash Karat was at the party office, but Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee chose to drink coffee and discuss matters of governance with Pranab Mukherjee this afternoon.

Bhattacharjee dropped in at the Dhakuria residence of the external affairs minister around 4.20pm, days after his party boss had tried his best to topple the UPA government and failed.

On the plate were sandesh and biscuits but the chief minister gave the sweets a miss, perhaps the bitter taste of parting still fresh in his mouth. Sipping coffee, with no sugar in it, Bhattacharjee went straight to the issues that had taken him to the door of Manmohan Singh’s minister.

“The chief minister came to me to discuss the Darjeeling problem and some pending central projects. We had a long discussion. Since I am not directly linked to this, I told him I would talk to the Prime Minister and other ministers concerned,” Mukherjee said after the hour-long meeting.

Chief secretary Amit Kiran Deb had earlier revealed the state had written to the Centre for a tripartite meeting on Darjeeling.

Bhattacharjee brought up the chemical hub at Nayachar, a deep-sea port without which many investors will skip Bengal, a second airport and upgrade of the Bengal Engineering and Science University. Mukherjee said he also raised the erosion of embankments of the Hooghly and Padma in Murshidabad and Malda. The chief minister himself did not say what he had spoken about.

Karat, who does not have a government to run or voters to answer to and can afford to turn his back on the UPA, was at the CPM’s Alimuddin Street headquarters explaining to his party’s state committee why Somnath Chatterjee was expelled.

The chief minister skipped the afternoon session to keep his date with Mukherjee, with whom the Left has an easy relationship. Bhattacharjee had dropped in at his house six months ago to discuss Darjeeling and has on several occasions praised him in public for help with central funds. On his part, Mukherjee had called on Jyoti Basu in Salt Lake after the collapse of the alliance.

Bhattacharjee, a regular smoker, did not light up in front of “Pranabda”.

Mukherjee and Karat both returned to Delhi in the evening but their paths did not cross.