Mamata jeopardised Bengal's welfare, says BJP

Kolkata, Feb 8 (IANS) The BJP Sunday accused West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee of jeopardising the welfare of her state by not attending the first meeting of Governing Council of NITI Aayog, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

"All chief ministers are participating, except Mamata Banerjee. By skipping the meet, she has jeopardised Bengal's development and welfare. Being the representative of Bengal, she ought to have attended the meeting and raised the issue of the state's development," Bharatiya Janata Party's West Bengal unit president Rahul Sinha said.

"Banerjee has been carrying a stubborn attitude against the Centre but her stubbornness will not affect either Prime Minister Modi or India, but the only one to suffer the loss will be Bengal. She has taken a step detrimental to the state because NITI Aayog is for the development of the states," said Sinha.

Sinha, during the day, met Chief Electoral Officer Sunil Gupta and sought the nomination of Trinamool Congress candidate Mamatabala Thakur for the Bangaon Lok Sabha by-election be scratched as, he claimed, she has given false information about her academic qualifications.

"In her nomination papers, she (Thakur) has shown that she has passed Class 8 from Deshbandhu Chittaranjan Upper Primary School in Chandrapur in Maharashtra. But the RTI reply has shown that the school does not provide education up to Class 8 level," he said.

"Moreover, she has also not submitted any document in support of her academic qualifications. This tantamounts to defrauding the Election Commission, so we have sought her nomination be cancelled on that ground," said Sinha.

He also said the party was also mulling taking legal recourse against the Trinamool nominee.

The Feb 13 by-poll in the Lok Sabha constituency of North 24 Parganas district was necessitated by the death of Trinamool MP Kapil Krishna Thakur.