PM Modi chairs NITI Aayog meeting, know who attended and who skipped from opposition parties

Digital Desk: Prime Minister Narendra Modi presided over the ninth Governing Council meeting of NITI Aayog today, addressing key development issues and policy matters. Despite the high-profile nature of the meeting, several opposition chief ministers chose to skip it, citing grievances over the Union Budget.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, a member of the INDIA bloc, was among the few opposition leaders who attended the meeting. The Governing Council, which is the apex body of NITI Aayog, includes all state chief ministers, lieutenant governors of Union Territories, and several Union ministers. Modi, as the Chairman of NITI Aayog, led the discussions.

A major focus of the meeting was the preparation of a vision document aimed at propelling India towards becoming a developed economy with a GDP of USD 30 trillion by 2047, marking the centenary of its independence. NITI Aayog has been tasked with consolidating 10 sectoral thematic visions into a unified vision under the initiative "Viksit Bharat @2047." This vision spans various aspects of development, including economic growth, social progress, environmental sustainability, and good governance.

However, the meeting was overshadowed by the decision of several Congress-ruled state chief ministers—including Siddaramaiah of Karnataka, Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu of Himachal Pradesh, and Revanth Reddy of Telangana—to boycott the session. They cited perceived bias against their states in the recent Union Budget. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, and the Aam Aadmi Party-led governments of Punjab and Delhi also announced their boycott.

Biju Janata Dal (BJD) MP Sasmit Patra supported the opposition's decision, accusing the Centre of denying states their rightful share in the Budget. Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) MP Mahua Maji stated that her party will make a decision based on the interests of Jharkhand, noting that JMM is part of the INDIA bloc.