West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee as also her counterparts from three other states did not attend the meeting called by Prime Minister Narendra Modi here today to discuss the future of the Planning Commission.
Besides Banerjee, the chief ministers who were absent were from Mizoram besides poll-bound Jammu and Kashmir and Jharkhand.
There was speculation that Banerjee skipped the meeting because of the current friction between her and the central government.
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Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, who briefed the media on the day-long deliberations, was asked whether Banerjee skipped the meeting because of Saradha chit fund controversy, to which he replied, "This is not the reason they have told us."
Jaitley said she has written a letter to the Prime Minister and shared the views of West Bengal.
"The letter indicates that they are in favour of body like Inter-State Council. The same thing was put forward by their Finance Minister," Jaitley said.
West Bengal was represented by its Finance Minister Amit Mitra. J&K and Jharkhand, where assembly elections are underway, were respresented by officials.
