Mamata to skip Niti Aayog meeting on May 27

KOLKATA: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has decided to skip the Niti Aayog meeting slated to be held in New Delhi on May 27, a senior official at the state secretariat said on Wednesday.

The decision came a day after the TMC, of which Banerjee is the chief, announced that it will boycott the inauguration of the new Parliament building in the national capital.

The reason behind Banerjee's skipping of the Niti Aayog meeting is not known.

''The Bengal CM may not be participating in the Niti Aayog scheduled in New Delhi on May 27,'' the bureaucrat said.

Banerjee had earlier this month expressed interest in participating in the meeting and said that she will highlight the issue of the state which being allegedly deprived by the Centre.

She had then said, ''I will be participating at the Niti Ayog meeting on May 27 in New Delhi because it is the only platform to highlight the issues of a state''.

Banerjee had asked Bihar Chief Minister and JD(U) leader Nitish Kumar to hold a meeting of opposition parties in Patna at the end of this month to prepare together for the 2024 Lok Sabha poll. But it does not seem to be possible at this juncture.

On Tuesday, the TMC, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Left parties CPI and CPI-M announced their decision to boycott the inauguration of the new Parliament building on May 28.

On Wednesday, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said all political parties are invited to the inauguration of the new Parliament building and they will take a ''call as per their wisdom''.

Shah told a press conference at the national capital that 'Sengol', a historical sceptre from Tamil Nadu that was received by the first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru to represent the transfer of power from the British to Indians, will be installed in the new Parliament building and the event should not be linked with politics.

Delhi and Punjab Chief Ministers Arvind Kejriwal and Bhgwant Singh Mann respectively met Banerjee at the West Bengal secretariat on Tuesday to seek support for the Delhi government's fight against the Centre over an ordinance on the control of administrative services in the national capital.