Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, whose party JD(U) is part of the ruling NDA at the Centre, also did not attend the meeting. Giving reasons for his absence, Subrahmanyam said that since the state assembly was in session and it got over late in the evening the previous day, he could not come. About the other absentee CMs, he said that had they all attended, it would have enriched the forum and also their states.Meanwhile, noting that she was at the meeting to strengthen cooperative federalism, the West Bengal CM said, “There are many regional aspirations. That is why I am here, to share those aspirations. If a state is strong, the Union will be strong. Many states have been deprived in the Budget, including my state, which has been deprived of MNREGA funds for the last three years.”The West Bengal CM said before she was stopped abruptly, she also underlined that the Centre cannot discriminate between the states based on its political equation with the parties governing them. Alluding to the special financial packages to Andhra Pradesh and Bihar in the annual budget presented last week, she said she did not mind some states drawing “special attention” from the Centre as long as others are not deprived.Sources in the TMC said that the CM decided to attend the meeting despite attempts by the INDIA bloc to persuade her to give it a miss. This was essentially a move to send out a message to the Congress that her political actions would not be guided by the strategies drawn up by the main opposition party.
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