At least four Opposition chief ministers have decided to boycott the Niti Aayog meeting on July 27 to protest the “snub” meted out to their states in the budget.

The chief ministers of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Himachal Pradesh and Telangana will stay away from the meeting. Tamil Nadu chief minister M.K. Stalin was the first to announce his decision to boycott the meeting.

“Shockingly, the words ‘Tamil’ or ‘Tamil Nadu’ do not appear even once in the entire budget speech by hon’ble @nsitharaman, who previously began her budget speeches with ‘Thirukkural (classic Tamil text)’. In light of this blatant neglect of Tamil Nadu, I have decided to boycott the @NITIAayog meeting scheduled for 27th July, chaired by the hon’ble PM. #BJPBetraysTamilnadu,” Stalin
posted on X.

The All India Congress Committee general secretary in charge of organisational matters, K.C. Venugopal, announced the boycott by Congress CMs.

“The Union budget presented today was extremely discriminatory and dangerous, which completely goes against the principles of federalism and fairness that the Union government must follow. In protest, INC CMs will be boycotting the Niti Aayog meeting scheduled for July 27,” he posted on X.