Mamata Banerjee unlikely to attend launch of infra projects by Modi in Bengal

Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is unlikely to attend Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s scheduled programme at Haldia in Purba Medinipore district on Sunday evening, a top official at the state secretariat said. The exact reason for this uncertainty has not been specified, but the ‘insult meted out to her’ on 23 January, when ‘Jai Shri Ram’ slogans were raised at an event just before her speech, could be the cause, he said. Modi is set to inaugurate four projects in Haldia in oil, gas, and infrastructure sectors. “Madam (CM) is unlikely to attend this evening’’s programme at Haldia where PM Modi will be inaugurating projects,” the official told PTI. The TMC boss has also asked her party members to skip the programme, he added. Banerjee had on 23 January refused to deliver her speech at an event on the occasion of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose’s 125th birth anniversary, after a section of the audience raised ‘‘Jai Shri Ram’’ slogans in the presence of the prime minister. She had said that such an “insult was unacceptable”. Sources in the Raj Bhavan said Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar is scheduled to attend Sunday’s event.