WB CM, chief secy insulted PM by not attending cyclone review meet: Suvendu

Leader of the opposition in West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari on Saturday alleged that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and the chief secretary have insulted Prime Minister Narendra Modi by not attending a meeting chaired by him to discuss the ravages caused by Cyclone Yaas.

Banerjee did not attend the meeting but entered the room from where Modi was holding the meeting and submitted a report to him on the damages caused by the cyclone in the state, and sought a Rs 20,000 crore package for redevelopment of the worst-hit areas.

She was accompanied by Chief Secretary Alapan Bandyopadhyay. A few hours after the meeting, the Centre ordered his transfer to Delhi.

"I have no word to criticise the way the West Bengal chief minister and the chief secretary insulted the prime minister," Adhikari, a BJP MLA, told reporters in a virtual press conference.

Claiming that Banerjee questioned his presence in the meeting held at Kalaikunda air base in Paschim Medinipur district on Friday, Adhikari said that he was invited to it as the leader of opposition in the state assembly and MLA of cyclone-affected Nandigram.

"She is trying to show her arrogance and petty politics by her stance," he said.

Banerjee has claimed that opposition leaders were not invited to similar review meetings held in Gujarat and Odisha, the two states that also faced cyclone fury over the past few days.