Mamata Banerjee opts out of PM's Bangladesh visit

KOLKATA: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who was to accompany Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on his two-day visit to Bangladesh, today said she was not going.

"I am not going," Banerjee told PTI here, when asked whether she will visit Bangladesh.

She did not specify any reason for deciding not to go to Bangladesh.

Banerjee and chief ministers of four other states bordering Bangladesh were scheduled to accompany the Prime Minister on his visit starting on September six.

Banerjee was to go to Dhaka directly from Kolkata instead of joining the PM's delegation in Delhi.

National Security Adviser Shiv Shankar Menon had met Banerjee on August 31 to brief her on the strategy of bilateral discussion during the Prime Minister's visit.