Kolkata, Seo 17: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday met Prime Minister Narendra Modi's wife at the city airport before boarding her flight to New Delhi and they exchanged pleasantries.

Jashodaben was leaving the city after a two-day visit to Dhanbad in neighbouring Jharkhand, a source close to the chief minister said.

"It was a chance meeting and they exchanged greetings.

The chief minister also gifted her a sari," the source said.

Banerjee is scheduled to meet the prime minister on Wednesday in New Delhi, during which she would highlight various issues like funds that are due to the state.

Jashodaben had on Monday offered puja at Kalyaneswari temple at Asansol in Paschim Bardhaman district of West Bengal. Asansol is around 68 kilometres from Dhanbad.

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Bengaluru: Leader of Opposition in the Assembly R. Ashoka has accused the Congress government of using the hijab issue to placate what he described as discontent among minority voters after the Davanagere by-election.

In a post on X on Wednesday, Ashoka alleged that the state government, instead of addressing issues such as price rise, corruption, farmers’ distress and law and order, was attempting to retain its minority vote base by reviving the hijab issue.

Referring to the 2022 dress code introduced by the BJP government, which prohibited hijab in schools and colleges, Ashoka said the Karnataka High Court had upheld the policy and emphasised the importance of discipline in educational institutions.

He questioned the Congress government’s move to revisit the issue and asked whether setting aside the court-backed policy to benefit one community could be described as secularism.

Ashoka further alleged that while the government was willing to permit hijab, it continued to prohibit saffron shawls.

He accused the government of dividing students on religious lines rather than treating schools and colleges as spaces of equality.

Drawing a comparison with Mamata Banerjee’s government in West Bengal, Ashoka claimed that excessive appeasement politics had harmed the state and warned that the Congress in Karnataka could face a similar political response.

He said voters in Karnataka would teach the Congress a lesson for what he termed “vote-bank politics” and for compromising constitutional and judicial principles.