Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired the Niti Aayog's ninth Governing Council meeting on Saturday to discuss the various development issues and policy matters. While several Opposition chief ministers skipped the meeting, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who is also a part of the INDIA bloc, attended the meeting.
Following the meeting, Mamata Banerjee alleged she wasn't allowed to speak.
She also called the Union Budget "politically biased".
The Niti Aayog, which is the apex public policy think tank of the central government, includes the PM as Chairman and Chief Ministers of all the states, Lieutenant Governors (LG) of several Union Territories and several union ministers as its members.
According to sources, the chief ministers of the BJP-ruled states were directed to take part in the meeting and to give a presentation in front of PM Modi highlighting the key achievements of their government.
"The chief ministers of the BJP-ruled states have been asked to highlight the achievements of their tenure in office. They have also been asked to highlight the performing and non-performing departments/schemes of their government," sources told India Today TV ahead of the meeting.
The Opposition Chief Ministers who boycotted the meeting included Tamil Nadu CM MK Stalin, Puducherry Chief Minister N Rangasamy, Kerala Chief Minister and CPI (M) leader Pinarayi Vijayan, Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann and all three Congress chief ministers-- Karnataka's Siddaramaiah, Himachal Pradesh’s Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu and Telangana’s Revanth Reddy, announced to boycott the key meeting of the NITI Aayog.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar also did not attend the Niti Aayog meeting. His state was represented at the meeting by Deputy Chief Ministers Samrat Choudhary and Vijay Kumar Sinha.
The cause for Kumar's absence from the crucial meeting could not be known immediately.
As per sources, the centre approved the budget proposals of Puducherry, after which the chief minister felt there was no necessity to attend the meeting.
On Friday, Mamata Banerjee said the public policy think-tank brought by the Modi government should be scrapped and the Planning Commission restored.
In an interaction with a group of journalists in Delhi, Banerjee called the BJP a "tukde-tukde platform" and asserted she would not allow her state to be divided.
Asked about the situation in neighbouring Bangladesh, which has been rocked by widespread anti-quota agitation, Banerjee said while she cannot interfere in the matters of neighbouring countries, as per United Nations conventions, her state has to give shelter if refugees turn up at the border.
Banerjee, who is set to attend the Niti Aayog meeting on Saturday even as most INDIA bloc chief ministers have decided to give it a miss, said she felt their voices should be raised on a common platform.
"They (BJP) have formed the government, but they don't have people's mandate. This is the first time after the BJP came in 2014 that they have not formed the government as a single party," said the Trinamool Congress chief, whose party is a constituent of the INDIA bloc.
Source: India Today