Mamata Banerjee leaves Niti Aayog meeting midway

The Government denies allegations

New Delhi – Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee walked out of the ongoing Niti Aayog meeting in New Delhi. Prime Minister Narendra Modi led the 9th Administrative Council meeting of Niti Aayog, which was attended by Chief Ministers of BJP and various states.

In detailing her reason for leaving the meeting, Mamata Banerjee stated, “I was allotted only 5 minutes to speak compared to the 10 to 20 minutes given to BJP Chief Ministers. My microphone was turned off while I was discussing the points of Bengal, which prevented me from fully presenting my views. This was a disrespectful act towards me and the people of Bengal.” While Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has denied all of these allegations.

Chief Ministers from seven states within the ‘INDI’ Alliance did not attend the meeting. The list includes MK Stalin (Tamil Nadu), Siddaramaiah (Karnataka), Revanth Reddy (Telangana), Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu (Himachal Pradesh), P. Vijayan (Kerala), Hemant Soren (Jharkhand), Bhagwant Mann (Punjab), and Arvind Kejriwal (Delhi).

Before the meeting, Mamata Banerjee advocated for the abolition of Niti Aayog and the reinstatement of the Planning Commission, which was established by Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose.