West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee is unlikely to attend Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s event to launch key infrastructure projects in Haldia district on Sunday in what will be his second visit to the poll-bound state in as many weeks.
Sources told CNN-News18 that Mamata Banerjee has taken the call to give the event a miss after her “humiliation” at the event organised at Victoria Memorial in Kolkata on the birth anniversary of Subhash Chandra Bose on January 23.
Banerjee had been heckled by a section of the audience and is wary of a repeat of the January 23 episode, sources said, and hence, has decided to skip the event in Haldia despite being invited for it.
The chief minister had refused to address the programme held to celebrate the 125th birth anniversary of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, citing “humiliation” after a section from the audience shouted ‘Jai Shri Ram’ when Banerjee was about to deliver her speech.
“This is a government programme and there must be some decorum and discipline here. It should have some dignity. It is not a political programme. You cannot invite people here and insult them. I am invited and humiliated. In protest, I am not saying anything,” she had said and gone back to her seat.
PM Modi and Governor Jagdeep Dhankar were present at the event when this happened. TMC sources said that since the BJP did not even spare an event in honour of Netaji to score a political point, there was no chance that the saffron party will behave any differently on Sunday.
They said that not only will Banerjee not attend the event, but other TMC representatives have also been asked not to go.
Modi will inaugurate an LPG import terminal built by the state-run BPCL in Haldia, which the Prime Minister’s Office said will cater to the growing requirement of LPG in West Bengal and other states in eastern and north-eastern India.
He will also lay the foundation stone for a crucial project for the Haldia refinery of the Indian Oil Corporation. Another project to be inaugurated by the prime minister is a four-lane ROB-cum-flyover at Ranichak in Haldia on NH 41. It has been built at the cost of ₹190 crore, the PMO said. “These projects are in line with Prime Minister’s vision of Purvodaya, of driving growth of the eastern India,” the PMO said.
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