The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Sunday criticised the Chief Ministers of West Bengal and Jammu and Kashmir, Mamata Banerjee and Omar Abdullah, for not attending Prime Minister Narendra Modi's meeting with all the state chiefs in the national capital, adding that the meet was for the empowerment of every state.
"The Prime Minister has convened to talk about the Planning Commission's future structure. This meeting is for empowering the states, so it would have been good if the CMs had attended the meeting and had democratically put their views, because it was only for furthered the cause of their respective states," BJP spokesperson Sambit Patra told ANI.
"If they say that they had prior engagements because of which they could not attend the meeting then it's also be reminded of the fact that the priority of the country and priority of the state is the number one priority and every other engagement falls thereafter," he added.
Prime Minister Modi and Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh are meeting the Chief Ministers today to discuss various aspects relating to restructuring of the Planning Commission. The Prime Minister will seek views of the Chief Ministers regarding the structure, scope and role of the new body that will replace the Planning Commission.
Earlier in the day, Banerjee and Abdullah skipped Prime Minister Narendra Modi's meeting with the Chief Ministers across India. While Abdullah mentioned the ongoing polls in Jammu and Kashmir as his reason for absence, the West Bengal CM reportedly blamed her ongoing tiff with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) for the same.