In the end, Modi did not need to be in Pranab-da’s good books to become PM. But that bonhomie has obviously blossomed even more.

Mamata Banerjee must be smarting.

Dada does not want to see Didi. But has made time for Narendra-bhai.

Banerjee who once tried to scupper Pranab Mukherjee’s bid to be President of India decided to play dutiful sister and go to Delhi with a Get Well Soon card for the President as he recovered from his angioplasty.

But on the way she learned that the President was trying not to have visitors because of fear of infection.

No matter, said Bengal’s Florence Nightingale.

"If the President doesn’t meet, I will give flowers from outside (the hospital) and return, wishing him a speedy recovery. We don’t want to disturb someone who is sick."

That sounds eminently sensible except Pranab-da had just met Narendra Modi. And Modi-ji had happily tweeted cheery selfies with “Pranab-da” on his hospital bed.

"Met Rashtrapati ji. He was very cheerful. I had gone to ask about his health but instead he talked about issues relating to the Nation!"

It’s as if someone posted a statutory warning that too much Mamata Banerjee could be injurious to the President’s health. Didi not surprisingly will read a snub into this even if the visit finally happens.

What’s more worrying for her is that at a time when the BJP is chomping at the bit in Bengal and the French Ambassador decides to visit the BJP office on his visit to Kolkata because he thinks the party has a “bright future”, Mamata needs friends in high places.

That’s why the bromance between Narendra Modi and Pranab Mukherjee is doubly worrying to Mamata. But then it should not come as a surprise either.

Actually Modi had wooed Pranab-da from before he became PM. At that time when speculations were rife about the number of seats the BJP would win, analysts reasoned that Modi needed to do his best to keep all channels open with Rashtrapati Bhavan. Modi had been among the first to congratulate Pranab Mukherjee when the UPA nominated him as its candidate even though the NDA chose to oppose him.

In his first Kolkata rally, Modi had made a point of both stroking Bengali pride and stoking Bengali hurts by reminding his audience that Subhas Bose or Subhas-babu didn’t get his rightful place in history because of Congress conspiracies and Pranab-da was denied the prime ministership after Indira Gandhi’s assassination though he was the seniormost member in her cabinet. When he finally became President, Outlook commented "Rajiv’s widow was left with no choice but to acknowledge Pranab’s unwavering loyalty to the Gandhi dynasty—Sonia included—and life-long services to the party by nominating him for the country’s highest constitutional post for the next five years."

In the end, Modi did not need to be in Pranab-da’s good books to become PM. But that bonhomie has obviously blossomed even more. On Pranab Mukherjee’s birthday, Narendra Modi was effusive in his tweets. The Rashtrapati merited not one, not two but three fulsome tweets about his “sharp mind” and his “insight” and how “few people can match his political experience and stature”. India, we were told was “honoured to have a President like him.”

Earlier in August, Modi had gushed that half-an-hour with Pranab-da was “like reading a good book” and marveled at “what software his brain was made of.”

Pranab Mukherjee is the perfect candidate for Modi to demonstrate his non-partisanship. An old Congress veteran yet one with a famed “trust deficit” with the Gandhis stemming back to that time when he launched his own short-lived party in a huff. And Pranab-da, a man without great mass base, is the consummate political survivor as well and a good person to have on your side. Modi understands that.

The President, on his part, has been more diffident about any public display of affection. When asked for his reaction to Modi’s comment that he would have made a better Prime Minister than Manmohan Singh whose boss he once was, Pranab-da just enigmatically replied “You have your own assessment.” He did abandon his prepared speech in Vietnam to extemporize and praise the Modi government for creating a “favourable” impression of India around the globe. And Hindustan Times points out he did cut his two-day Bihar visit short by a day so as not to clash with Modi’s “Hunkar rally.” Sometimes actions speak louder than words.

And Mamata should know that. Despite her recent show of solicitousness during the waning days of the UPA regime Mamata had made it clear that she did not consider Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee any real friend of Bengal since she claimed he had sent her back empty handed from Delhi time after time. During the presidential elections, when she tried to nix Pranab Mukherjee’s chances, the Bengali channel Akash Bangla wondered ““Was Mamata waiting for just such an opportunity to exact her revenge on Pranab Mukherjee?” Congress MP Adhir Chowdhury remarked that back in 1984 it was Pranab-da who cleared Mamata’s first candidature on the Congress ticket.“Mamata offered her gurudakshina to Pranabda by trying to scupper his presidential candidature,” he said.

While they have hugged and made up since then, Pranab Mukherjee, a man often described as a walking encyclopedia with a photographic memory, has surely not forgotten any of it.

Mamata’s Bong connection is obviously going to come up short against this kind of camraderie between two of the most powerful people in India today. Modi knows the very savvy Pranab-da will not be a rubber stamp President and he needs to keep him close. And as the BJP makes a determined bid to become Bengal’s main opposition to Mamata in 2016, and shake off its image as an outsider party in the state, a perception of a love-fest between Modi and Bengal’s tallest (figuratively) political leader today does not hurt.