KOLKATA: If Narendra Modi had expected courtesy from the Mamata Banerjee government on his first visit to Bengal as Prime Minister, Mamata did much more on Saturday. Gone was the animosity, the barbs they hurled at each in the 2014 Lok Sabha campaign, and the Centre-state friction. Cooperation, not confrontation, was on the CM's lips.

While Modi's visit went like clockwork, the surprise was the half-hour unscheduled meeting between Mamata and Modi before the PM's programme at Nazrul Mancha. Clearly, the ice was broken. The smiles flowed easily when Mamata shared the dais with Modi for the first time and later broke bread with him at Raj Bhavan. On Sunday, the chief minister will accompany the PM to Asansol.

Mamata sat next to Modi at Nazrul Mancha. The two leaders were seen conversing freely and broke into a smile together at one point of time - enough to trigger a buzz in political circles. So when the chief minister complained about the absence of banks in many panchayat areas of Bengal, the Prime Minister said: "I do agree with her view. This problem has persisted for 60 years. She has said this in front of me because she knows that I can deliver the goods."

The audience at Nazrul Mancha witnessed two politicians, in complete command of their realms, talking of cooperation and development and putting an end to confrontation. The CM, who had once mocked Tripura CM Manik Sarkar for meeting Modi, said: "The state and the Centre should work shoulder to shoulder for the country's development."

The warmth between the two leaders went far beyond the protocol that state finance minister Amit Mitra was assigned for. Mitra did his duty by receiving the PM at Kolkata airport. Mamata was more spontaneous. She overshadowed BJP leaders - Siddharth Nath Singh, Rahul Sinha, Samik Bhattacharya and Ritesh Tiwari - who had gone to the airport to welcome Modi.

The developing chemistry between Mamata and Modi, despite their political differences, first became clear soon after she called on the PM in Delhi in March 2015. It was after this meeting that the Mamata government dumped its anti-Modi stance and chose a middle path - throwing the lifeline to the Modi government "bill by bill, ball by ball", as Trinamool national spokesperson Derek O' Brien put it.

With 12 Trinamool members in Rajya Sabha, Mamata helped the Modi government in passing the coal bill, and mines and minerals bill making up for BJP's shortfall in the upper house. Mamata's party has also given support, in principle, to the Goods and Services Tax (GST), which is due to be placed in Rajya Sabha.

In return, Mamata wants special assistance for cash-strapped Bengal - be it debt waiver, waiver of crop insurance or a special Backward Region Grant Fund (BRGF). In a seven-page memorandum to the PM, Mamata listed the centrally assisted schemes where there has been substantial cut in central support. The Mamata government has to strain its frayed coffers to keep the services running.

Mamata had raised some of these issues during the UPA-II regime, in which her party was a major stakeholder. But it didn't mature. She now wants to engage with the Modi government to get some relief on the financial front.

The scene has now gone back to Narendra Modi's first public meeting at Brigade Parade Grounds where he urged people to bring about Poribartan in the Centre, just as they did in the 2011 assembly polls by putting Mamata in power.

However, the Opposition is curious about the unscheduled meeting between the PM and CM, at the back-stage of Nazrul Mancha, where Mamata didn't take along any of her leaders. Congress leader Abdul Mannan sees a sinister connection between such unscheduled parleys and the sudden slowdown in CBI inquiry into the Saradha scam. "Why should the CM be so secretive in placing the state's demands? Mamata's one-on-one meeting with Modi was beyond state's interests," Mannan said.