New Delhi, Aug 26: West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadev Bhattacharjee will meet Prime Minister A B Vajpayee today and ask him to reconsider the Centre`s decision to bifurcate the Eastern Railways. This will be the Chief Minister`s first attempt to persuade the Prime Minister to change Centre`s decision on the issue, after an all-party meeting here on August 19 empowered him to take up the matter with the Prime Minister.

Bhattacharjee had already said that he would meet the Prime Minister and try to stall the bifurcation move. ``This is not an issue between West Bengal or Bihar, this is a national issue,” he said at the end of the all-party meeting. The meeting opposed the bifurcation move and proposed that the matter be referred to an expert committee.

The Chief Minister had earlier met the Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani who sought his opinion on the railway bifurcation move last month. An all-party delegation from West Bengal also called on Advani and the railway minister Nitish Kumar to discuss the issue last month.

Bureau Report