Union Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal said the chief ministers of opposition-governed states have done injustice to their people by skipping the NITI Aayog meeting on Saturday.

Addressing a press conference here, Goyal said these CMs lost an opportunity to ask questions.

“Niti Aayog belongs to all. The Opposition needs to look within. They have done injustice to the people of the states ruled by them,” said Goyal, who was recently elected to the Lok Sabha after his victory in the Mumbai North constituency.

CMs from the INDIA bloc – M K Stalin (DMK) of Tamil Nadu, Kerala’s Pinarayi Vijayan (CPI-M), Punjab’s Bhagwant Mann (AAP), Congress’ Siddaramaiah (Karnataka), Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu (Himachal Pradesh), Revanth Reddy (Telangana), and Jharkhand’s Hemant Soren (JMM) – skipped the NITI Aayog meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Opposition parties have alleged that the states ruled by them have been ignored in the Union Budget presented recently in the Lok Sabha. West Bengal CM and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee, also an INDIA ally, walked out of the meeting, claiming she was humiliated as she was not allowed to speak.

Goyal said the Union Budget presented earlier this week needs to be looked through the context of continuity with the interim budget.

Asked about NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar’s comment on Amit Shah’s externment from Gujarat, Goyal said Pawar was an important part of the “UPA government’s conspiracy against Shah and the then Gujarat CM Narendra Modi".

“The UPA had levelled a false case against Amit Shah,” he said.

Responding to Shah’s “ringleader of corrupt people” jibe for Pawar, the NCP (SP) chief had said on Friday, “The one who was externed by the Supreme Court is holding charge of the Union Home Ministry now.”

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