Projecting her party as the mainstay of anti-BJP parties’ march before the 2024 general elections, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is likely to skip Niti Aayog meeting scheduled on May 27 in Delhi, said state secretariat officials at Nabanna.
Mamata’s decision came a day after her party Trinamool Congress decided to boycott the inauguration of the newly- built Parliament building. It is not the first time Mamata will be skipping a Niti Aayog
meeting. She has skipped the meetings in 2018, 2019 and 2021 claiming the think-tank has no power and the meetings were “fruitless”.
The reason behind Banerjee’s skipping of the Niti Aayog meeting this time is not known.“On Wednesday
afternoon, the chief minister said that she would not attend the Niti Aayog meeting and asked to cancel her Delhi visit on May 27,” said an official of the state government.
Mamata had earlier this month expressed interest in participating in the meeting and said that she will
highlight the issue of the state which being allegedly deprived by the Centre. She had then said, “I will be participating at the Niti Ayog meeting on May 27 in New Delhi because it is the only platform to highlight the issues of a state”. Mamata had asked Bihar Chief Minister and JD(U) leader Nitish Kumar to hold a meeting of opposition parties in Patna at the end of this month to prepare together for the 2024 Lok Sabha poll. But it does not seem to be possible at this juncture
The senior TMC leadership found Mamata’s decision to skip Neeti Aayog meeting was politically well-calculated. “Her earlier Niti Aayog meeting boycott had made news with little political impact but her decision to skip this year’s event assumes significance, especially on a day when all 19 Opposition parties joined to boycott the inaugural event on May 28. Besides, she is now desperate to portray her party as the prime political force against the BJP in the backdrop of Congress’s impressive performance in Karnataka derailing the saffron camp from the power,” said a senior TMC leader.
On the day of Karanataka election results, Mamata described it as people’s verdict against the BJP and in favour of unity in diversity, without mentioning Congress’s name. Though she appreciated HD Kumaraswami for his party Janata Dal Secular’s (JDS) performance in the Karnataka elections, the West Bengal chief minister did not drop names of Congress and Rahul Gandhi while congratulating the candidates who secured victory against the BJP.
Mamata has been portraying the Trinamool Congress as the only political force which can defeat the saffron camp since her party came to power for straight third term in the 2021 Assembly elections.
Shortly after returning to power in 2021, Mamata also held a meeting with Sonia Gandhi in Delhi eyeing Opposition parties’ unity against the BJP. But her relationship with the Congress turned sour and it became public before the elections in Goa as refused to accept the Congress party as the leader of the
She claimed TMC is the only political force that can defeat the BJP. “But Congress’s impressive victory in Karnataka has caused a jolt to her claim. Besides, elections are approaching in Madhya Pradesh
and Chhattisgarh and if the Congress manages to win in both the states, Mamata’s claim of being principal anti-BJP party will be challenged and the Congress will definitely play a lead role in the oppositions’ alliance before the 2024 general elections,” admitted a senior TMC leader.
