West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee confirmed on Friday that she will participate in the NITI Aayog meeting scheduled for July 27 in Delhi. Banerjee’s statement came amid speculations on whether she, like most other CMs of the INDIA bloc, would skip the meeting. She arrived at Delhi airport ahead of the meeting slated to take place tomorrow.
#WATCH | West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee arrives at Delhi airport
She will attend the NITI Aayog meeting, tomorrow. pic.twitter.com/3hiZhymMCj
— ANI (@ANI) July 26, 2024
Speaking to reporters at the Kolkata airport before leaving for Delhi, Banerjee said she would join the meeting to protest against what she termed a discriminatory budget and a conspiracy to divide Bengal and other opposition-ruled states. “I will stay at the meeting for a while. If I get an opportunity to deliver my speech at the meeting and record my protest against the discrimination and political bias against the opposition-ruled states in the budget besides the conspiracy that is being hatched to divide Bengal and its neighbouring states, I will do so. Else, I will walk out of the meeting,” she stated, as quoted by news agency PTI.
CM Banerjee, accompanied by her nephew and TMC MP-cum-national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee, left for Delhi on Friday afternoon, postponing her trip to the national capital by a day. The delay had led to speculations on whether CM Banerjee, who had earlier expressed her intention to attend the NITI Aayog meeting, would join the bandwagon of opposition party chief ministers boycotting the event.
“All opposition-ruled states, including Bengal, have been totally deprived in this Budget. The Centre has taken a step-motherly attitude towards these states. I cannot accept such discrimination and political bias against us,” Banerjee said.
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CM Mamata Banerjee Slams ‘Conspiracy To Divide’ Bengal And Its Neighbouring States
Referring to BJP Bengal president and junior union minister Sukanta Majumdar’s proposal to integrate north Bengal with the North Eastern states without directly naming him, Banerjee said she “strongly condemned such statements” coming at a time when the Parliament is in session. “There’s a conspiracy to divide Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand and Assam. While the minister is making his own statements, the demand to divide the states is now coming from various other quarters of the BJP. Dividing Bengal means dividing India,” she remarked, as quoted by PTI.
Banerjee labelled the conspiracy as a “geographical and political blockade besides the economic blockade which the Centre has already imposed on Bengal”. She reiterated her commitment to attending the NITI Aayog meeting to voice her protest. “Hemant (Soren) and I will be present at the meeting. We will speak on behalf of the others (who won’t be present),” she added.
Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren Also Likely To Attend NITI Aayog Meeting As Several INDIA Bloc CMs Announce Boycott
Several CMs from the INDIA bloc, including Tamil Nadu’s MK Stalin (DMK), Kerala’s Pinarayi Vijayan (CPI(M)), Punjab’s Bhagwant Mann (Aam Aadmi Party), and all three Congress chief ministers – Karnataka’s Siddaramaiah, Himachal Pradesh’s Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, and Telangana’s Revanth Reddy – had announced their decision to skip the meeting as a mark of protest against the Union budget. They alleged that the budget was “anti-federal” in spirit and “extremely discriminatory” towards their states. However, Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren of the JMM is likely to join the meeting despite earlier reports suggesting he might skip it, PTI reported.