Why did Arvind Kejriwal, Nitish Kumar, 6 other Opposition CMs skip PM Modi’s Niti Aayog meeting?
Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal, Bihar CM Nitish Kumar and many other state CMs decided to skip out of the Niti Aayog meeting conducted by PM Modi today.
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| Edited By: DNA Web Team |Source: DNA Web Desk |Updated: May 27, 2023, 02:24 PM IST
Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired NITI Aayog's eighth Governing Council meeting, which will deliberate on several issues including, health, skill development, women empowerment and infrastructure development, with an aim to make India a developed nation by 2047 on May 27, with the Chief Ministers of all the states asked to join.
However, many Chief Ministers from states ruled by opposition parties such as the Aam Aadmi Party and Congress decided to skip the meeting. The Niti Aayog meeting has been conducted every year since 2015, but many prominent leaders decided to abstain from attendance this year.
The eight Opposition CMs who decided not to attend the Niti Aayog meeting were – Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal, Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann, West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee, Bihar CM Nitish Kumar, Tamil Nadu CM MK Stalin, Telangana CM K Chandrasekhar Rao, Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot and Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday, announcing a boycott of the Niti Aayog meeting over the Centre's recent ordinance and charged that "cooperative federalism" in the country was being turned into a "joke", saying that Bhagwant Mann won't be attending as well.
West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee said that she will not be attending the meeting since she was preoccupied, and offered to send in a TMC representative, which was reportedly declined by the Centre, who insisted that Banerjee attend the meeting herself.
Telangana CM KCR had also announced earlier that he will not be travelling to Delhi to attend the Niti Aayog meeting. KCR had last year termed NITI Aayog "a useless body" and boycotted the Seventh Governing Council meeting.
According to sources, all the CMs who decided not to attend the meeting are upset with the policies and decisions of the Narendra Modi government, especially the Centre’s issuance of an ordinance against the Supreme Court’s decision to give the transfer-posting power to the Delhi government.
(With inputs from agencies)