Rift in Oppn unity? Mamata Banerjee to boycott Sonia Gandhi's anti-CAA meet

Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday said she will boycott the opposition meeting convened by Congress president Sonia Gandhi on January 13.

Banerjee said her decision was a protest against the violence unleashed by the Congress and the Left parties in the state during Wednesday's general strike.

During the 24-hour nationwide strike by 10 central trade unions, including those affiliated to the Congress and the Left parties, police vehicles were torched, buses and motor-bikes damaged, and highways, crucial road junctions and railway tracks blockaded in the state.

Accusing the Congress and the state's Left spearhead by CPM of playing "dirty politics", Banerjee said she would continue her protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), National Register of Citizens (NRC) and National Population Register (NPR) alone.

Banerjee said "double standards" of the Left Front and Congress will not be tolerated.

"I have decided to boycott the meeting convened by Sonia Gandhi on January 13 in New Delhi as I don't support the violence that the Left and Congress unleashed in West Bengal yesterday (Wednesday)," the chief minister said at the state Assembly.

Sonia Gandhi has called a meeting of opposition parties, including the Left, to discuss the situation arising out of violence on various university campuses and protests in the country over the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019.

(With inputs from IANS and PTI)

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