Mamata arrives in Delhi to attend national panel meet

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee arrived in the Capital on Tuesday to attend a meeting of the national committee set up to commemorate Mahatma Gandhi’s 150th birth anniversary.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will chair Wednesday’s meeting of the national committee, where all chief ministers from 36 representatives from across the political spectrum have been invited to plan the grand Gandhi Jayanti next year.

“Nothing political this time. Have come to attend a meeting on Gandhiji’s 150th Birth anniversary. He is ‘Father of the nation’. And that’s most important,” she told media persons at the Delhi airport on Tuesday evening.

The Chief Justice of India and several other Union Ministers are also part of the national committee. It has a total of 114 members. However, the attendance of Congress President Rahul Gandhi and Congress chairperson Sonia Gandhi is not yet confirmed.

There were speculations over the Trinamool Congress supremo’s presence as she decided not to attend any meeting called by the Centre since 2015, in protest of its’ policies.

Apart from the national committee meeting, no separate appointments are scheduled during the Bengal CM’S three-day visit to the national capital.

The Bengal government will also celebrate the 150th birth anniversary of the father of the nation, and it will begin from October 2 at Gandhi Bhavan in Kolkata’s Beliaghata. The state government has set up a 46-member committee with CM Mamata Banerjee as its chairperson.