Opposition parties to give Mamata Banerjee's 100th district meet a miss

KOLKATA: Most of the opposition parties in West Bengal have decided to boycott Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's 100th administrative meeting in Burdwan on Wednesday. Chief Secretary Sanjay Mitra had invited all parties to the meeting. The big three opposition parties -CPM, BJP and Congress -on Monday confirmed their decision to keep off the meet. Even the SUCI (Marxist), a minor Left cohnstituent, too will boycott the meet.

The chief minister has refused to attend the Niti Aayog meeting in Delhi convened by Prime Minister Narendra Modi because it coincided with the administrative meeting. She said she would depute one of her senior ministers to attend the Niti Aayoag meeting which will discuss the land bill.

“This government is much more interested in organising functions and has been engaged in doing politics of favour and offering doles. This government has failed to generate assets, create employment opportunities and is also in the habit of denying the central government's contributions towards the development of Bengal. There is no point attending the function. We are highlighting the state government's failures in different fields inside the Assembly and in public meetings,“ the lone BJP MLA, Shamik Bhattacharjee, told ET .

“I have informed the chief secretary that I would not be able to attend the chief minister's function at Burdwan on Wednesday as I have some urgent meetings at my constituency on the same day,“ Congress Legislative Party (CLP) leader Md. Soharab said.

Former state Congress president and MLA, Manas Bhunia, was critical.“The chief minister had so far organised 99 meetings in different districts of Bengal and she did not invite the opposition party leaders in any of such meetings. Even she does not bother to invite the elected zilla parishad of Murshidabad during her recent meeting at the district because the zilla parishad is being run by the Congress,“ he said.

“There is no point attending the meeting because we have not noticed any development in Bengal,“ opposition leader and CPM politburo member Surjya Kanta Mishra said.

Trinamool Congress secretary-general and education minister Partha Chatterjee said: “The opposition is jealous about our government's success in implementing development projects. Our CM wanted to involve the opposition in her move to develop the state. But the opposition is unwilling to join hands with her. To them, politics is everything and not the state's development.“

A senior government official said the 100th meeting will be held in presence of the media. Apart from political parties, the state has also invited the chairpersons of various PSU banks, industrialists and intellectuals at the meet.