Amid INDIA bloc’s boycott, BJP CMs arrive in Delhi to attend NITI Aayog meet

New Delhi [India], July 27 (ANI): Several Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled state chief ministers arrived in the national capital in the late hours of Friday to attend the NITI Aayog meeting, to be held today.

The meeting will be chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Goa CM Pramod Sawant, upon his arrival, said that he would present the state issues in front of the NITI Aayog.

“The NITI Aayog meeting is going to take place under the leadership of PM Modi. Different issues in a state are discussed in NITI Aayog meetings. We will present the demands and issues of Goa in front of the NITI Aayog. There is also a Chief Ministers Conference after that. In it, the CM takes a review of the 13 flagship programmes. Goa has always been forward in those programmes. The Goa government has also announced 10 per cent reservations under the Agniveer scheme for uniform services like police, fire services and forest services,” he said.

Chhattisgarh CM Vishnu Deo Sai said that the meeting will take place under the chairmanship of PM Modi.

“There is NITI Aayog meeting under the chairmanship of PM Modi. After that, there will be a CM conclave as well. Both Dy CMs Arun Sao and Vijay Sharma will also be attending that,” he said.

Odisha CM Mohan Charan Majhi, Maharashtra CM Eknath Shinde, Gujarat CM Bhupendra Patel, Rajasthan CM Bhjajanlal Sharma, Meghalaya CM Conrad Sangma and Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma were among those who arrived in Delhi to attend the meet.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will chair the 9th Governing Council Meeting of NITI Aayog on Saturday to be held at the Rashtrapati Bhavan Cultural Centre.

This year’s theme is ‘Viksit Bharat@2047’, with a central focus on making India a developed nation.

The Governing Council Meeting will discuss the approach paper for the vision document on Viksit Bharat @2047.

The Prime Minister is the Chairperson of the NITI Aayog. Other attendees will include Chief Ministers and Lieutenant Governors of States and Union Territories, Union Ministers as Ex-officio Members and Special Invitees, and the Vice Chairman and Members of NITI Aayog.

While several chief ministers have given their nod to attend, several non-BJP CMs have refused to attend, citing the ‘raw deal’ meted out to them in the Union Budget. All INDIA bloc chief ministers except for Bengal CM and Trinamool supremo Mamata Banerjee will be attending the meet.

Notably, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin first announced the boycott in Chennai. Following this, the Congress said its chief ministers, including Himachal Pradesh’s Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu, Karnataka’s Siddaramaiah and Telangana’s Revanth Reddy, would skip the meeting.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)-led Punjab government, while expressing solidarity with the INDIA bloc, has decided that Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann will not attend the Niti Aayog meeting.

Along with Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann, Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren and Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan are also expected to give the meeting a miss.

But as a surprise, West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee arrived in Delhi to attend the NITI Aayog meet.

Mamata Banerjee said she would be protesting against the political discrimination meted out to Bengal at the NITI Aayog meeting in Delhi on Saturday, July 27.

“I will protest against the political discrimination being done to Bengal in the NITI Aayog meeting. The budget has discriminated against Bengal and other opposition states, and we can’t agree to that,” she added.