NITI Aayog Amid talks of forming anti-Modi front, 7 opposition CMs skip NITI Aayog meet
New Delhi/IBNS: Seven Chief Ministers- who are all from the Opposition camp- are skipping the Centre's key NITI Aayog meeting which is chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday, media reports said.
Among the seven Chief Ministers are Ashok Gehlot from Congress-ruled Rajasthan, Pinarayi Vijayan from Left-ruled Kerala, Mamata Banerjee from Trinamool Congress-ruled West Bengal, Arvind Kejriwal and Bhagwant Mann from Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)-ruled Delhi and Punjab respectively, Nitish Kumar from Bihar and K Chandrasekhar Rao from Telangana.
While Gehlot has cited health reasons, Vijayan has given no statement regarding giving a miss to the Centre's big meeting, where various issues related to the states and union territories are discussed.
Kejriwal, who is at the loggerheads with the Modi government, said he decided to boycott the meeting over the Centre's new ordinance which bypassed the Supreme Court's rule favouring the city government over share of administrative powers.
Mann said he would skip the meeting as the Centre is not paying attention to the needs of the northern state of Punjab.
The decision to opt out of NITI Aayog meet is widely seen as the nationally beleaguered Opposition's renewed effort to stitch various disperate opposition forces with often contradictory ideologies to challenge Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which have recently suffered a crushing defeat in Karnataka.
The Centre's new ordinance over Delhi's share of administrative powers has fuelled, at least momentarily, the Opposition's plans to slam the Modi government.
Delhi Chief Minister Kejriwal along with his colleagues from his government even flew down to Kolkata to meet Mamata Banerjee, an arch-rival of BJP, to garner support for his party's anti-Modi stance.
Prime Minister Modi, who will seek reelection for the second time next year, will discuss matters related to health, skill development, women empowerment and infrastructure development in the NITI Aayog meeting.
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