Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is expected to skip the Eastern Zonal Council’s meeting to be held at Patna on December 10, where Union Home Minister Amit Shah is scheduled to chair the annual meet, official sources said on Wednesday.
State finance minister Chandrima Bhattacharjee will be representing Bengal at the Eastern Zonal Council meeting in place of the chief minister Banerjee, who has pre-occupation to undertake the official north Bengal district visit beginning on Wednesday, sources added.
Banerjee is expected to return to this city on December 12.
In December 2022, the EZC meeting was held at Nabanna and attended by Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren, Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar Tejashwi Yadav, and ministers from Odisha, along with senior officials of the Ministry of Home Affairs and officials of the states in which Shah had presided.
Banerjee will be in north Bengal during the meeting, where she will be chairing several important programs.
There are doubts over the presence of the chief ministers of the three member states—Bihar, Jharkhand, and Odisha.
The chief ministers of the three other member states— Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, all the none – NDA governments.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar did not attend the last EZC meeting. In his place, deputy chief minister and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader Tejashwi Prasad Yadav attended.
