I.N.D.I.A. CMs, barring Mamata Banerjee, to boycott Niti Aayog meet over 'extremely discriminatory' budget

While K C Venugopal soon announced the boycott of party Chief Ministers citing 'extremely discriminatory' budget, Derek O’Brien said Mamata will attend the meeting and 'strongly use the platform to hold the union government responsible' for depriving Bengal of its rights.

New Delhi: Chief Ministers of I.N.D.I.A. bloc, barring West Bengal’s Mamata Banerjee, are all set to boycott the Governing Council meeting of NITI Aayog on Saturday, protesting against the Union Budget that the Opposition claimed was discriminatory to states ruled by them.

The I.N.D.I.A. MPs will also hold a protest in Parliament on Wednesday against ignoring Opposition ruled states in the budget while accusing the Modi government of benefitting NDA-ruled states like Bihar and Andhra Pradesh.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin was the first to announce the boycott in Chennai followed by Congress, which said Siddaramaiah (Karnataka), A Revanth Reddy (Telangana) and Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu (Himachal Pradesh) will not participate in the meeting. 

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, who is in judicial custody, will also not attend the meeting while sources said Bhagwant Mann (Punjab), Pinarayi Vijayan (Kerala) and Hemant Soren (Jharkhand) are also likely to skip the meeting.

The issue came up for discussion at a meeting of I.N.D.I.A. Parliamentary floor leaders chaired by Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge here when DMK’s Kanimozhi informed the leaders about Stalin’s decision to boycott the meeting.

Sources said, Congress General Secretary (Communications) Jairam Ramesh suggested that other I.N.D.I.A. Chief Ministers could also follow suit. Floor leaders were then asked to share the suggestion with their respective leaders.

While Congress General Secretary (Organisation) K C Venugopal soon announced the boycott of party Chief Ministers citing “extremely discriminatory” budget, Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha floor leader Derek O’Brien said Mamata will attend the meeting and “strongly use the platform to hold the union government responsible” for depriving Bengal of its rights.

Asked why Trinamool was taking a different course of action, he sought to play down the differences saying all parties do not need to be “photocopies” of each other while insisting that I.N.D.I.A. bloc is united. He said some partners contested against Trinamool in the Bengal bypolls but they are united in Parliament and one could see it during a protest on Wednesday.

Describing the budget as “extremely discriminatory and dangerous” that goes against the principles of federalism and fairness, Venugopal said the government’s attitude is “completely antithetical” to Constitutional principles and they decided not to participate in the NITI Aayog event that is “solely designed to hide the true, discriminatory colours of this regime”.

At the meeting, sources said, AAP’s Raghav Chadha spoke about Kejriwal’s health condition and said that he is mentally strong but is physically weak.

To a suggestion, sources said, the leaders decided to discuss the possibility of meeting the Chief Minister in Delhi. The parties are also mulling issuing a joint statement expressing concern over the health condition of Kejriwal, sources said.

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