Mamata Banerjee won't attend PM Narendra Modi's swearing-in ceremony tomorrow

KOLKATA: West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee in a U-turn on Wednesday declared that she would not attend the swearing-in ceremony of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The about-face happened after she ‘came to know’ that family members of 54 BJP workers allegedly killed by Trinamool Congress workers were taken to Delhi by train as special invitees to the oath-taking event.

Banerjee, who on Tuesday agreed to attend the event, said the occasion was being “politicised” and “devalued.” “The oath-taking ceremony is an august occasion to celebrate democracy, not the one that should be devalued by any political party,” she tweeted on Wednesday.



She said: “It was my plan to accept the constitutional invitation and attend the oath-taking ceremony. However, in the last one hour, I am seeing media reports that the BJP is claiming 54 people have been murdered in political violence in Bengal. This is completely untrue. There have been no political murders in Bengal.”