Mamata skips Delhi visit over State Budget preparations

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee cancels meeting on 'One Nation One Election' due to State Budget engagements.

Citing engagements related to the State Budget, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday said that she will skip the meeting of the ‘One Nation One Election’ committee in New Delhi on Tuesday.

“I have cancelled my New Delhi trip... The State Budget will be presented in the Assembly on February 8, and there are only two days to go. In this situation, I had to call off the visit,” Ms. Banerjee said at the State Secretariat.

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The Trinamool Congress chairperson said that she has communicated to the chief of the panel, former President Ramnath Kovind, about her inability to attend the meeting. She said that MPs Sudip Bandyopadhyay and Kalyan Banerjee will be present at the meeting in the national capital.

Last month, Ms. Banerjee had written to the panel expressing her disagreement with the concept of simultaneous polls, contending that it would be against the basic structure of “constitutional arrangements”.

“Are we going towards a presidential form of government? ‘One Nation, One Election’ means presidential form of government. Something which is there is America. This is not what our Constitution says,” Ms. Banerjee had said in January.

Meanwhile, Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari was in Delhi along with other BJP MPs. Mr. Adhikari met Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and sought an investigation into the alleged irregularities highlighted by the Comptroller and Auditor General in West Bengal. He said that the State has not conducted audits properly over the past few years.