Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee met her Assam counterpart Himanta Biswa Sarma for more than two-and-half-a-hours in Darjeeling on Wednesday afternoon, sparking speculation on what transpired between the two leaders on the opposite side of the political spectrum.

The meeting between the duo —held at Raj Bhavan in Darjeeling in the presence of Bengal governor Jagdeep Dhankar — ahead of the presidential election scheduled for Monday prompted many political observers to wonder whether the election was discussed between the two chief ministers.

Biswa Sarma did not speak to the media, but sources close to him said it was a courtesy meeting as the two leaders were in the hill town on the same day.

When Mamata emerged from the meeting, reporters waiting outside the Raj Bhavan gate twice asked here whether there was any discussion on the presidential election in which NDA’s nominee Droupadi Murmu is pitted against the consensus candidate of non-BJP parties Yashwant Sinha.

Trinamul was instrumental in galvanizing support for the joint Opposition candidate.

“There was no political discussion,” Mamata replied to a question from this newspaper. When reporters again repeated the question after a while, Mamata reiterated: “Why should there be a discussion? His party is different, my party is different.”

Mamata Banerjee pays homage to the statue of Nepali poet Bhanu Bhakta Acharya in Darjeeling on Wednesday The Telegraph Picture

Bengal chief minister said it was “an absolutely courtesy tea meeting”.

However, several sources in Bengal BJP — a general secretary and two vice-presidents — told this newspaper that Biswa Sharma met Mamata to convince her to support Murmu. Although none of these leaders wanted to speak on record tagging the issue as ‘sensitive’, each of them claimed that they expected that the Trinamul Congress chairperson would end up extending her support to Murmu.

“She has no other option. Our choice of candidate is a political masterstroke. Droupadiji is a tribal woman,” a state general secretary said. “If she (Mamata) doesn’t support our candidate, we will brand her as anti-tribal and anti-women.”

The rumour that Mamata may consider supporting the NDA nominee is triggered by her recent comments that had the BJP informed her about pitching Murmu as the NDA candidate, she would have thought of supporting her. Her statement has already given the saffron camp a tool to weave a narrative that their plan to select a tribal woman for the highest constitutional post in the nation has already castled Mamata, who was trying to play a key role in the anti-BJP space.

Even as it remains unclear on what Trinamul legislators will do, a political observer said Mamata realised that she couldn’t be seen emerging out of a meeting with a BJP chief minister and suddenly making a 180 degree turn towards Murmu, pulling her support away from Sinha, the Opposition candidate.

“Dont forget that Sinha is her candidate... She is likely to take some time,” said a BJP insider.

The Mamata-Biswa Sharma meeting, irrespective of its agenda, is important.

In 2021, after Biswa became the chief minister, he was said to be instrumental in consolidating votes for the saffron camp in some of the Rajbanshi-dominated belts of north Bengal through his connections with Rajbanshi leaders like Ananta Maharaj.

In December last year, Biswa Sarma said Jeevan Singha, the self-styled chief of Kamtapur Liberation Organisation (KLO), intended to return to the mainstream and he welcomed it.

Biswa Sarma’s remark led to repercussions across Bengal and Trinamul pointed out that such negotiations were not possible without including the Bengal government.

However, Mamata on Wednesday, said it was important to maintain state-to-state relations, especially with Assam.

“I feel we need to keep a relationship (with Assam) as a lot of people from Bengal stay in Assam and a lot from Assam also stay in Bengal. We have a border in Cooch Behar and at times we need to communicate. It is good to keep open communications between state governments,” said Mamata.

The chief minister also attended the 208th birth anniversary celebration of Nepali poet Bhanu Bhakta Acharya and stressed that all great leaders of community refrain from “discriminating” against people.

Additional reporting by Arkamoy Datta Majumdar