New Delhi: Trinamool Congress chief and Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee has now become the eighth opposition-led chief minister to skip the NITI Aayog meeting on July 27, in protest against the Union Budget, The Wire has learnt.
The meeting will be chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
On July 24, The Wire had reported that chief ministers of all opposition-ruled states – except Banerjee – had announced that they would boycott the NITI Aayog meeting as a mark of protest against a Budget which they felt had been “extremely discriminatory” towards their states.
Tamil Nadu chief minister and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam leader M.K. Stalin was first to announce his move – on the day the Budget was tabled. Later, three Congress chief ministers – Karnataka’s Siddaramaiah, Himachal Pradesh’s Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu and Telangana’s Revanth Reddy – said they too will boycott the meeting.
Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren of the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha and Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann of the Aam Aadmi Party made similar announcements.
Banerjee was quoted by The Telegraph as having said she would join the meeting and register her protest against a “discriminatory budget” and the “conspiracy to divide Bengal and other opposition-ruled states.”
“I was asked to send my written speech seven days ahead of the meeting which I have done. That was before the Union Budget was tabled,” she added.
The INDIA parties came to this decision during a meeting of parliament floor leaders on the evening of July 23, an opposition leader told The Wire.
Opposition leaders have said that the Union Budget presented by finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman for the Modi government has been disproportionate in its attention to Andhra Pradesh and Bihar – two states ruled by parties that have proven to be useful allies to the Bharatiya Janata Party as it struggled to retain power with 240 seats earlier this year.
