Row erupts as Mamata Banerjee skips PM Modi's 1st post-Sindoor meeting with states

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday skipped the crucial NITI Aayog meeting in New Delhi, the first such interaction between the Prime Minister and state chief ministers since Operation Sindoor and the recent Pahalgam terror attack. Her absence triggered a fresh round of political sparring in Bengal.

At the previous NITI Aayog meeting on July 27 last year, Banerjee had walked out after alleging that her microphone was turned off mid-speech, preventing her from speaking for more than five minutes.

Reacting to her latest no-show, West Bengal BJP chief spokesperson Shamik Bhattacharya said, "The Chief Minister had complained about her mic being turned off last year. But Bengal is in a financial crisis, and at a time of such uncertainty, she should have been present. Instead, she chose to boycott the meeting."


Defending Banerjee, Trinamool Congress leader Jay Prakash Majumdar said, "Last year, the central government clearly demonstrated it did not want to hear the Chief Minister. Cutting off her microphone was an insult to her, and the state."