Mamata, Kejriwal skip PM led meet of NITI Aayog
Politics came to play out in the NITI Aayog on Sunday with two most vocal critics of Prime Minister Narendra Modi — West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal — opting out from the meeting of its governing council.
While Kejriwal may have Delhi civic body elections as an alibi for not attending the meeting and sending Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia instead, the West Bengal CM did not even bother to mention any reason for not attending the meet chaired by PM Modi.
Mamata has been an open critic of NITI Aayog for not being a participatory forum unlike its predecessor — the Planning Commission. She had opted out even from the earlier NITI Aayog meetings as well.
Most chief ministers attended the meeting as Modi had refused to allow their official representatives to participate in the deliberations. Modi had made it clear that only the CM or the Deputy Chief Minister will represent their states and no other official will be allowed to participate in the meeting.
West Bengal’s finance and industries minister, Amit Mitra, who was supposed to attend the meeting in place of Mamata, could not attend it just because of this reason, sources said.
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