West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee will not be attending the meeting of the “One Nation One Election” committee scheduled for Tuesday in New Delhi, citing prior engagements due to the forthcoming state budget session.
"I have cancelled my New Delhi trip... The state budget will be presented in the assembly on February 8, and there are only two days to go. In this situation, I had to call off the visit," Banerjee told reporters at the state secretariat.
The TMC supremo said she has communicated to the committee chief, former President Ramnath Kovind, about her inability to attend the meeting.
"I have already spoken to Kovind ji about this,” Mamata said.
The chief minister said TMC MPs Sudip Bandyopadhyay and Kalyan Banerjee will be present at the meeting in the national capital.
The committee is mandated to examine and make recommendations for holding simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha, state assemblies, municipalities and panchayats keeping in view the existing constitutional framework.
Banerjee had last month written to the panel members, expressing her disagreement with the concept of simultaneous polls, contending that it would be against the basic structure of “constitutional arrangements”.
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