New Delhi: The political confrontation and differences between the BJP and Trinamul continue to persist despite finance minister Arun Jaitley addressing the two-day West Bengal Global Business Summit in Kolkata.

The WB government had invited Mr Jaitley and Union minister Nitin Gadkari as chief guest and guest of honour respectively at the meet that began on Wednesday.

However, BJP leader Shrikant Sharma said his party “will continue to oppose the TMC’s misrule and corruption” and will expose how the TMC is “becoming a threat to internal security”.

The BJP leaders said Mr Jaitley attended the summit as India’s development “comes with the development of states”.

Mr Sharma said the Centre is “determined to take the country and the states ahead. There’s no place for politics in this”.

At the summit on Wednesday, CM Mamata Banerjee and Mr Jaitley not only shared the stage but promised to usher in a year of “greater cooperative federalism”.

Mr Jaitley said: “I am here to assure you that the Centre strongly stands behind states in order to support each one of the rupees and dollars that you invest.”

Ms Banerjee said: “Arun Jaitleyji is here to guide us, to give his advice. In a federal structure, a strong Centre and a strong state can only complement each other.”