West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee walks out of NITI Aayog meet, says 'my mic was muted'; Centre factchecks

West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee

West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday walked out of the NITI Aayog meeting, claiming that her mic was muted. She also said that she was allowed to speak only for five minutes while the other chief ministers were given 10-12 minutes to put their points.

"I have come out boycotting the meeting. (Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister) Chandrababu Naidu was given 20 minutes to speak. The chief ministers of Assam, Goa, Chhattisgarh spoke for 10-12 minutes. I was stopped from speaking after just five minutes. This is unfair," she said.

Banerjee arrived in the national capital to attend the NITI Aayog meet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, even as most INDIA bloc cahief ministers decided to give it a miss.

"From the opposition side, I was the only one here. I attended the meeting because cooperative federalism should be strengthened," Banerjee said after she came out of the meeting.

She also reiterated her stance on bringing the Planning Commission back and said, "NITI Aayog has no financial powers, how will it work? Give it financial powers or bring the Planning Commission back."

The Centre, meanwhile, refuted Banerjee's claims and said that her mic wasn't muted.

"It is being claimed that the microphone of CM, West Bengal was switched off during the 9th Governing Council Meeting of NITI Aayog. This claim is misleading. The clock only showed that her speaking time was over. Even the bell was not rung to mark it," the Press Information Bureau said on X.

On Friday, the West Bengal chief minister had said that NITI Aayog, the public policy think-tank brought by the Modi government should be scrapped and the Planning Commission be restored.

"Since the NITI Aayog has been planned, I have not seen a single work being done because they don't have any power. Earlier, there was a Planning Commission. As a chief minister... at that time I saw there was a system," she said.

NITI Aayog's 9th Governing Council meeting chaired by PM Modi began in Delhi on Saturday.

The meeting focuses on making India a developed nation by 2047. It aims to foster participative governance and collaboration between the Centre and state governments, enhancing the quality of life for both rural and urban populations by strengthening the delivery mechanisms of government interventions.