Mamata Banerjee’s former protégé and leader of Opposition in the Bengal Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari, on Saturday, said the chief minister had lied about what happened at a cyclone review meeting convened by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Kalaikunda on Friday.

“I take responsibility when I say that the chief minister had rescheduled her pre-scheduled meeting on Thursday night to meet the Prime Minister on Friday. When she came to know that I would be there, she thought she would be absent (in the meeting),”Adhikari told journalists at an online news conference.

The legislator claimed that Mamata finally decided to meet Modi because she had to make demands for money. “Otherwise, how would her cadres in panchayats misappropriate the funds,” he said sarcastically.

Negating Mamata’s claims that Modi had made an exception for Bengal by inviting the leader of the Opposition to the meet, Suvendu said the leader of Opposition of Odisha, BJP’s Pradipta Kumar Naik (mispronounced by Suvendu as Pradip Naik) was invited to that state’s Yaas meeting, but couldn’t attend since he had Covid-19. Adhikari added that leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury was also invited, but couldn’t attend since he was busy in Delhi.

“She can’t face me,” Adhikari said. “She is a non-MLA chief minister. I’ve defeated her and been elected by the people’s mandate,” he added.

He said Modi waited for Mamata and the chief secretary for over 20 minutes on Friday. He then sent an officer, Bhaskar Kulbe, to check if Mamata was at all coming. Later Mamata came, handed over the documents and left in a minute-and-a- half, he said.

“She thinks Bengal is a country unto itself and she is its Prime Minister. That isn't the case and she should change her mind set,” Suvendu said.

Regarding the Centre summoning chief secretary Alapan Bandyopadhyay to New Delhi, Suvendu said he had worked with the IAS officer at the state’s transport department. He has nothing against Bandyopadhyay or any IAS officer for that matter. However, Mamata has forced these officers to break protocol, Suvendu said, referring to Bandyopadhyay arriving late for and leaving early from a meeting chaired by the Prime Minister.

“It (the recall) is a government decision and not a political one. But from my experience as a legislator, I can tell you that there isn’t anything wrong with it,” he said.

Congress MP Chowdhury also issued a statement regarding Bandyopadhyay's recall and urged both the governments to work together at this critical hour. He mentioned that Bandyopadhyay was an able officer and hence the state government had sought his extension.

Chowdhury also stood by Mamata, and said that Modi did not invite the Congress leader of Opposition of Gujarat at a recent meeting.

“You cannot prefer one and not the other. The treatment has to be the same in all cases,” Chowdhury said. He added that he was invited for the meeting at Kalaikunda, but couldn’t attend because he got the information late.