West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Arvind Kejriwal skipped Niti Aayog's meet
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal skipped the day-long Niti Aayog's Governing Council meeting being held in Delhi today.
Both have sent their chief men to attend the meet where Prime Minister Narendra Modi outlined his vision for "New India". West Bengal is being represented by its Finance Minister Amit Mitra and Delhi by deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, sources have told news agency PTI.
The third meeting of the council began at Rashtrapati Bhawan with the main agenda of discussing the 15-year Vision Document to accelerate the country's economic development.
The source further said a large number of chief ministers are attending the meeting because Prime Minister Narendra Modi had refused to allow their official representatives to participate in the deliberations.
The source said PM Modi had made it clear that only the chief minister or the deputy chief minister will represent their states and no other official will be allowed to participate in the meeting.
Among the opposition ruled states, Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswamy attended the meeting.
Others who were present include Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti Sayeed and Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.
Union ministers Nitin Gadkari, Rajnath Singh, Suresh Prabhu, Prakash Javadekar, Rao Inderjit Singh and Smriti Irani also attended the meet.
The council, which is the apex body of the Niti Aayog, is headed by the Prime Minister and includes all chief ministers and members.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)