Why was PM campaigning in Bihar instead of attending all-party meet, ask Trinamool MPs

Trinamool Congress criticizes PM Modi's absence at all-party meeting after Pahalgam terror attack, questions priorities.

The Trinamool Congress on Friday (April 25, 2025) continued to target the Union government over the Pahalgam terror attack and questioned the absence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the all-party meeting on Thursday (April 24).

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Several leaders of the ruling party in West Bengal said that the Prime Minister had instead chosen to go campaigning in poll-bound Bihar. Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha MP Sagarika Ghose said the Prime Minister not engaging with the Opposition in a moment of national crisis was “strange”.

“When the country is numbed & grieving over a major terror attack in #Pahalgam, when Opposition parties have given their full support to the Government of India for the actions it wishes to take, for @narendramodi to stay away from the All Party Meeting and instead attend a campaign rally in Bihar within 48 hours of Pahalgam is strange. In an hour of grave crisis, surely the Prime Minister must be the one taking the opposition into confidence,” Ms. Ghose posted on X.

Saket Gokhale, another Trinamool Congress MP, said that instead of being at the meeting, Mr. Modi was busy with an election campaign programme in Bihar and waving a flag for a train. “All political parties came together last evening to support the Union government in responding to the attack. Leaders of Opposition from both the Houses of Parliament were present. But Modi didn’t feel that 26 Indian lives are important,” Mr. Gokhale said.

Ever since the terror attack on tourists in Jammu and Kashmir on Tuesday (April 22), the Trinamool Congress has been raising questions on “security lapses” that resulted in the attack. The party on Wednesday said that Union Home Minister Amit Shah should accept responsibility for the failure to prevent the attack.

Trinamool Congress leader Kunal Ghosh said that the Prime Minister ought to have announced a relief package for the victims and held the Home Minister responsible for lapses.