THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A day after the show of strength of non-NDA leaders at the grand swearing in ceremony of Karnataka Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy in Bengaluru , the West Bengal Chief Minister took everyone by surprise by extending birthday wishes to her Kerala counterpart Pinarayi Vijayan on Twitter.
Mr Vijayan turned 74 on Thursday. Though Mr Vijayan and Mamta Banerjee were present at the swearing in ceremony in Bengaluru on Wednesday, they were not seen exchanging pleasantries on the occasion like many other leaders did at the ceremony. The birthday greetings, coming as it is close on the heels of the brutal violence unleashed by TMC against CPM cadres during the recently concluded panchayat polls in West Bengal, are seen as an effort to cool things.
West Bengal Chief Minister's tweet; "Birthday greetings to @CMOKerala @vijayanpinarayi Pinarayi Vijayan," went viral with national and regional print-visual media interpreting gesture in different ways. Political observers say Mamta's gesture was an indication that she was serious about a non BJP-NDA coalition at the national level before 2019 irrespective of her serious political differences with CPM in Bengal.
