West Bengal Chief Minister and TMC chief Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday excused herself from attending the meeting convened by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday on the issue of ‘one nation, one election’.
She cited lack of sufficient time to come up with a “proper response” to the matter and called for circulation of a white paper on the subject to all political parties, inviting their views by providing adequate time to respond if the Centre indeed wanted “concrete suggestions”.
The PM-convenedmeeting will also hold deliberations on celebrations for 75 years of Independence and the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.
In her letter to Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi, who had sent out invites to all party presidents, she said such a “serious and sensitive subject” required consultation with constitutional and election experts and that to frame a proper response, she needed to consult all the members of her party.
“A proper response on such a sensitive and serious subject like ‘one country, one election’ in such a short time would not do justice to the subject. The matter requires consultations with constitutional experts, election experts and above all, the party members. Instead of doing the matter hurriedly, I would request you to kindly circulate a white paper on the subject to all political parties, inviting their views by providing adequate time. If you only do so, we will be able to give concrete suggestions on this important subject,” she wrote in the letter.
The TMC supremo’s decision to stay away from Wednesday’s meeting in Delhi comes against the backdrop of heightened tussle between the ruling party and the BJP in West Bengal after the saffron party made inroads into the eastern State.
Mamata had skipped the NITI Aayog meeting last Saturday and also did not attend the swearing-in ceremony of Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his second term on May 30. She had called the NITI Aayog meeting “fruitless”.
Reacting to Banerjee’s decision, West Bengal BJP chief Dilip Ghosh said she was yet to recover from her defeat in the parliamentary polls and was making excuses to avoid any meeting convened by the Centre or the saffron party. “All the political parties are attending it except the TMC. They shout the most about the federal structure but are busy destroying every aspect of a healthy democracy,” he said in Kolkata.
With 22 Lok Sabha members, the Trinamool Congress (TMC) is the fourth-largest party in the Lok Sabha along with the YSR Congress, which also has 22 members in the Lower House.
The TMC chief stated that regarding the development of aspirational districts, her party had already conveyed that they were not in favour of the selection of a few districts as it would not conform to the overall objective of achieving a balanced and uniform development of all the districts of the State.
Banerjee, nevertheless, said she and her party would wholeheartedly participate in the celebrations for 75 years of Independence and the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi. And for ways to improve the productivity of Parliament, the parliamentary affairs ministry might consult the matter with all the political parties.