Suspense prevails over Hemant Soren's participation in NITI Aayog meeting

Ranchi, Jul 26 (PTI) Suspense prevailed over whether Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren would participate in the NITI Aayog's crucial meeting in New Delhi on Saturday.

The Congress, which is a part of the JMM-led coalition government in the state, is against the CM's participation in the meeting, sources said.

Soren attended the first day of the monsoon session of the Jharkhand Assembly during the day and also a few other programmes in Ranchi and was yet to leave for Delhi till Friday night, they said.

The chief minister's office is also maintaining silence over the matter.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, whose Trinamool Congress is also a member of the INDIA bloc like the JMM, left for the national capital to attend the meeting and said that Hemant Soren would also take part in the meeting.

"Hemant (Soren) and I will be present at the meeting. We will speak on behalf of the others (who won't be present)," she told reporters at Kolkata airport before leaving for Delhi along with her nephew and TMC national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will chair the NITI Aayog's ninth Governing Council meeting on Saturday which will focus on making India a developed nation by 2047.

Several INDIA bloc CMs have announced they will skip the meet as a mark of protest against the Union budget which, they alleged, was "anti-federal" in spirit and "extremely discriminatory" towards their states.

The list includes Tamil Nadu CM MK Stalin of the DMK, Kerala Chief Minister and CPI (M) leader Pinarayi Vijayan, Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann of the Aam Aadmi Party and all three Congress chief ministers – Karnataka's Siddaramaiah, Himachal Pradesh’s Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu and Telangana’s Revanth Reddy. PTI NAM ACD