After Modi's swearing-in ceremony, now Mamata Banerjee will skip NITI Ayog meet

Writing a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Banerjee said she will skip the meeting as NITI Ayog has no "power to support State Plans".

"Given the fact that the NITI Ayog has no financial powers and the power to support State Plans, it is fruitless for me to attend the meeting of a body that is bereft of any financial powers," Banerjee wrote in the letter.

The Chief Minister has reiterated her suggestion to the Prime Minister to focus on the Inter State Council which was constituted under Article 263 of the Indian Constitution but with certain modifications.

She has also vented her anger against the Modi government's decision to dissolve the Planning Commission and constitute NITI Ayog after assuming power in 2014.

This is the latest precedent of Banerjee's direct confrontation with the Modi government. On May 30, the Chief Minister, who speaks about cooperative federalism, made a u-turn from her previous stance to skip Modi's swearing-in ceremony.

The reason she had cited was the presence of families of 54 Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)'s slain workers from West Bengal at the ceremony. Banerjee had accused the BJP, which stormed into power for the second term in a row, of politicising the event.

The BJP and Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress (TMC) are at the loggerheads in West Bengal for past few years. The political battle got more intensified after the BJP won 18 seats from the state in the Lok Sabha polls, making a dent in TMC's seat-share.

Image Credit: PIB