Mamata not invited, TMC to boycott E-W Metro inauguration

The ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC) in West Bengal on Thursday decided to boycott the

inauguration of the East-West Metro corridor, after Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's name was found missing from the

invitation card for the programme, party sources said. The first phase of the East-West Metro corridor,

connecting Sector V with Salt Lake Stadium in the city, is scheduled to be inaugurated later in the day by Railway

Minister Piyush Goyal. Senior TMC MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar, state fire

services minister Sujit Bose and Bidhanagar Municipal Corporation Chairperson Krishna Chakraborty, who have been

invited to the inauguration, have decided to give the event a miss, in protest against "the insult meted out to Banerjee and

the people of Bengal". "The East-West Metro corridor project was the

brainchild of Mamata Banerjee during her tenure as the railway minister from 2009-2011. It was Banerjee who had sanctioned

money (for the project) in Railway budget. Now, when the project is being inaugurated, she has not been invited. This

is an insult to Banerjee and the people of Bengal," Dastidar told PTI.

Echoing similar sentiments, Bose said, "Why should we attend the event when our chief minister has not been invited?

The BJP should refrain from such petty politics." Railway officials, however, have declined to comment

on the matter. Defending the decision to not invite the CM, state BJP

chief Dilip Ghosh said, the TMC is "paying for its past sins". "During the Left rule, Mamata Banerjee, as the railway

minister, had not invited the then chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya, on several occasions. So they (TMC) should be

the last to talk about courtesy," Ghosh said. "In several administrative meetings in Bengal, BJP

lawmakers have not been invited. Was that a sign of courtesy? The railways have invited local public representatives. Now it

is up to them to decide whether they would attend the inauguration," he added.