West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said on Friday that she will be protesting against the political discrimination meted out to Bengal at the NITI Aayog meeting in Delhi on Saturday, July 27.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin first announced the boycott in Chennai. Following this, the Congress said its chief ministers, including Himachal Pradesh's Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu, Karnataka's Siddaramaiah and Telangana's Revanth Reddy, would skip the meeting.
After being denied special status by the Centre, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)-led Punjab government has decided that Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann will not attend the NITI Aayog meeting to be chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on July 27.
The decision came on Wednesday after the opposition parties claimed that the Union Budget presented on July 23 was "discriminatory" as it did not allocate enough funds for the state ruled by non-NDA parties.
While talking to ANI, the Union Minister said, "I am strongly condemning this. This is the habit of INDI Alliance, they are not participating in such a big forum. If Stalin did not come here to attend, how would he give justice to the Tamil people?"
Union Minister Piyush Goyal slammed the opposition for boycotting the NITI Aayog meeting scheduled for July 27 and said because of personnel enmity towards Prime Minister Narendra Modi, opposition leaders are boycotting NITI Aayog meeting.
Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy said on Wednesday that he is boycotting the NITI Aayog meeting scheduled for July 27th as the Centre has done injustice to the state in the allocation of funds in the 2024 Union Budget.
Karnataka Leader of the Opposition, R Ashoka, on Wednesday slammed Chief Minister Siddaramaiah for boycotting the NITI Aayog meeting scheduled for July 27.
Karnataka Deputy CM DK Shivakumar said on Wednesday that Congress Chief Ministers have decided to boycott the NITI Aayog meeting because there is no "justice" for opposition-ruled states from the Centre.
Voicing strong criticism of the NITI Aayog meetings organized by the Union Government after the opposition unitedly decided to boycott them, AAP MP Sandeep Pathak said there is no use of such meetings as the opposition voices and concerns go unheard.
"Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, who also attended the meeting, has ignored the concerns of the people of Karnataka. We don't feel Kannadigas are heard, and hence there is no point in attending the NITI Aayog meeting," added the Karnataka Chief Minister.