Suvendu Adhikari, the leader of opposition in West Bengal launched a scathing counter-attack on West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee for disparaging the PM’s Covid-19 meet with district magistrates (DM) and field officials of 10 states today.
The BJP leader took to Twitter to slam Banerjee for politicising today’s meeting with PM Modi. In a series of Tweets, he lambasted the CM for choosing to stay away from Covid reviews meetings during all previous occasions and today, hijacking a PM-DM meet only to remark that she was denied a chance to speak.
Today, our respected CM @MamataOfficial has once again shown her total disinterest in administration.
— Suvendu Adhikari • শুভেন্দু অধিকারী (@SuvenduWB) May 20, 2021
True to her style, she has politicised a meeting Hon’ble PM @narendramodi held with District Officials, where grassroots level practices to fight COVID-19 were being discussed.
“5 out of the 7 District Officials who spoke today belonged to non-BJP ruled states of Chhattisgarh, Kerala, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh. Cooperative federalism is the firm commitment of PM @narendramodi unlike CM @MamataOfficial who only believes in confrontational federalism”, Tweeted Adhikari.
The BJP leader expressed his angst saying that despite the Covid situation being miserable in West Bengal, the chief minister wants to play politics. “It is better they get down to work because the great People of West Bengal are watching!”, warned Adhikari in his Tweet.
Mamata Banerjee’s farce over PM Modi’s Covid-19 review meeting
The series of Tweets put out by the BJP leader was in response to Mamata Banerjee’s statements against PM Narendra Modi after she alleged she was not allowed to speak at today’s Covid-19 review meeting.
Earlier in the day, Mamata Banerjee had fumed at the “insult” she had to tolerate during the meeting. She alleged that CMs had been reduced to being puppets during meetings with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
She described Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s meeting with chief ministers as “casual and super flop” as, she said, none of the chief ministers, including herself, were given a chance to speak.
“If the states were not allowed to speak, then why were they called? All the chief ministers must protest for not being allowed to speak,” the West Bengal CM said.
While WB CM Mamata Banerjee used the opportunity to cast aspersions at PM Narendra Modi, the interesting part here is that this meeting was particularly called to discuss the Covid19 preparedness with field officials from states and districts. Though a few CMs like Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Karnataka CM BS Yediyurappa and WB CM Mamata Banerjee were also present during the virtual meeting, PM Modi primarily addressed the District Magistrates of 54 districts from 10 states with high caseloads of COVID-19 infections.
The officials, who interacted with Modi, were from Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Kerala, Maharashtra, Odisha, Puducherry, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh.
When Mamata Banerjee chose rallies over COVID meets
While Mamata Banerjee created such a hue and cry about not getting the due importance in today’s meeting, she should be probably reminded that over the course of the past 4 months, she has not attended even a single meeting between Chief Ministers and the Prime Minister. She skipped both the meetings, one in March and another in April, and busied herself in campaigning for the elections instead.
After skipping the April meeting, Mamata Banerjee had staged another drama. While Mamata Banerjee didn’t attend the meeting and she was represented by the Chief Secretary, she claimed that she was not invited to the high-level COVID-19 review meeting chaired by PM Modi today, saying that if she was, she would’ve certainly gone.
