Click to play videoKolkata: Nandigram might have changed the political landscape of Bengal forever by bringing Mamata Banerjee's Trinamool Congress – the principal Opposition party in the state – close to the CPI-M's allies.
At the invitation of Ashok Ghose, who is the senior most Left Front leader in Bengal after Jyoti Basu, Mamata Banerjee visited the office of a Left party for the first time in her chequered political career.
The point of her visit was to decide the date and venue of the proposed all-party meeting to resolve the Nandigram crisis.
Apart from Nandigram, other issues were also discussed in her brief meeting with Ghose who leads the Forward Bloc.
Ghose's initiative as Nandigram peace broker seems to have struck a chord with Mamata, and has brought the Trinamool Congress close to the three allies of the CPI-M.
"Left Front partners are not untouchables, they too are people like us. We don't have political or ideological differences with them, our differences are issue-specific, and I think this is a turning point in the politics of West Bengal," said Mamata.
They, too, have been bickering with the CPI-M on all the contentious issues – from Singur to Nandigram, SEZ to land ceiling.
Ghose and Mamata decided that the proposed all-party meeting would take place on the May 24, and he is hopeful of breaking the deadlock.
"We'll try to reach a consensus... I have spoken to the chief minister and he has assured me that the government would take all steps needed to implement the decisions taken in the all-party meeting," said Ghose.
Meanwhile, Left Front chairman and the CPI-M's secretary for Bengal, Biman Bose welcomed the initiative, but many a difference might still crop up.
The CPI-M and Trinamool Congress still have conflicting sticking points on Nandigram, and the peace talks might fall through.
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