PM invited Deb to CMs' meet in Delhi a month ago: Official

Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb has been invited by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to attend a meeting in the National Capital on May 2, a senior official said here today.

Deb had received the invitation to the meeting of chief ministers a month ago, additional secretary in the chief minister's office Milind Ramteke said.

The CMs' meeting was on the commemoration of the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, he said.

The official's statement came in the wake of reports in a section of the media that Modi had summoned Deb to Delhi over the chief minister's controversial statements on a range of issues.

It was yet to be confirmed whether the chief minister would be going to Delhi, he said.

Deb had recently courted controversy when he said the Internet existed in the Mahabharata era.

Last week, he had questioned the rationale behind Diana Hayden being crowned "Miss World" 21 years ago. Deb was all praise for Aishwarya Rai, who won the "Miss World" crown in 1994, saying she represented "Indian women".

Deb had also claimed that international beauty pageants were a farce.