Nitish’s absence from Niti Aayog meet sparks buzz; Mamata, Vijayan & Siddaramaiah too stay away

Three opposition-ruled states’ Chief Ministers — Mamata Banerjee (West Bengal), Pinarayi Vijayan (Kerala) and Siddaramaiah (Karnataka) — skipped the Niti Aayog Governing Council meeting on Saturday. However, it was Bihar CM Nitish Kumar’s absence, which gave rise to political speculation, considering the fact that he was present in the Capital, sources aware of developments said.

Though it became known on May 23 that Banerjee, Siddaramaiah and Vijayan’s would not attend the meeting, it was Kumar’s absence that kept the political pot boiling. Kumar’s absence generated reactions from leaders of the RJD and Congress in Bihar, with the latter calling it “unfortunate” and suggesting that it might carry a deeper political message.

This isn’t the first time that Kumar has skipped a Niti Aayog meeting. He was absent from the 2023 Governing Council meeting too. In 2024, he again skipped it, with Bihar being represented instead by Deputy CMs Samrat Choudhary and Vijay Kumar Sinha.

According to the sources, Kumar, whose JD(U) is a key ally of the BJP-led NDA government, has been in Delhi for the past couple of days. There is speculation that he will attend the meeting of all NDA-ruled states’ CMs on Sunday.

Similarly, no clear reasons were given by the offices of Banerjee and Vijayan for their absence, though Siddaramaiah had stated that he had a prior engagement in Mysuru.

Puducherry CM N Rangasamy also stayed away from the meeting. He is the founder of the NR Congress, which rules the UT. No reason was given behind his absence from the meeting by his office, the sources said.

Meanwhile, Niti Aayog CEO BVR Subramanyam on Saturday said almost 17 states have prepared and released or are on the verge of releasing their vision documents on Viksit Bharat. The documents were aligned with national priorities, while being grounded in local realities, he said.

Addressing a press conference after the meeting, Subramanyam said there were two items on the agenda, apart from an action taken report.

The theme of the meeting itself and the first item on the agenda was ‘Viksit Rajya for Viksit Bharat’. In the last meeting, the PM had given a call for all states to prepare their own state visions, making their states develop so that they have visions which will aggregate into a larger vision for the nation. The sub-themes included manufacturing services, rural, non-farm sector, urban and green economy and circular economy.

The PM noted that some states had done a lot at their level to sort out bottlenecks in various sectors. At the same time, Modi talked of creating investment-friendly atmosphere and a friendly competition among states, Subramanyam told mediapersons.

India