The dramatic walkout by Trinamool Congress supremo and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee from the Niti Aayog meeting in New Delhi underlines her determination to spearhead the Opposition campaign against the Modi regime.
Interestingly, while other Opposition chief ministers decided to simply boycott the Niti Aayog meeting alleging the Centre’s bias against state governments other than those ruled by the BJP or its allies, Mamata chose to break ranks with the explicit purpose of creating a scene at the event and grabbing headlines.
Accusing the organisers of muting her microphone in the middle of her fiery speech against the NDA government and giving her less time to speak than the chief ministers belonging to the BJP, she sought to prove why the Opposition's state governments can no longer work with New Delhi.
Having so ably thwarted the BJP’s bid to make inroads into West Bengal in the recent Lok Sabha polls and the recent bypolls, Mamata and her party have been emboldened to use every opportunity to embarrass the central government by taking a confrontationist line.