Mamata Banerjee on Thursday did not make her scheduled trip to Delhi, during which she was to not only attend a Niti Aayog meeting and press Bengal's demands but also meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi one to one, subject to his availability.

In the absence of clarity from the state government and the Trinamool Congress, it remained unclear whether the chief minister might still go on Friday.

However, the cancellation of Thursday’s trip triggered speculation whether she would participate in Saturday's Niti Aayog meeting, boycotted by all the other eight INDIA bloc chief ministers.

"Around 11am, we found out she wasn't going, although all arrangements were in place for her 2.30pm departure," a source said, attributing the change of plans to "certain unavoidable circumstances".

On Thursday and Friday, Mamata was supposed to sit with her parliamentary party for a strategy meeting in the capital, conduct an interactive session with senior Delhi-based journalists, and meet leaders of regional INDIA parties. On one of these two days, she was expected to meet the Prime Minister.

"All that can still be done if she travels to Delhi on Friday," a Trinamool MP said.

If she does make the trip, it will be her first to the capital since the June 4 general election results. Trinamool, with its 29 Lok Sabha MPs, is now the third-largest party in the INDIA bloc. Its 13 Rajya Sabha members make it the Opposition alliance’s second-largest force in the Upper House.

However, the boycott of the Niti Aayog meeting by the other INDIA chief ministers amid the increasing Opposition-Treasury hostility in Parliament, and the BJP-led Centre's praise on Wednesday of Mamata’s decision to attend it, has made Thursday’s development more intriguing.

A Trinamool insider said some INDIA constituents had reached out to Mamata, urging her not to attend the Niti Aayog meeting.

“Team INDIA has been exuberant about our national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee’s attack on Modi in the Lok Sabha (on Wednesday). Trinamool has been a flag-bearer of sorts for the INDIA grouping in Parliament this session,” he said.

“In that context, her attending the meeting might appear a little untoward. But if she goes and does everything else, even meets Modi for a CM-and-PM interaction over the state’s demands, that should be quite all right.”

He added: “But that is subject to Modi giving the appointment.”

Sources in Bengal’s ruling dispensation said Mamata was supposed to highlight several of the state’s pressing needs, such as a financial package, the long overdue aid for natural calamities, the release of at least part of the Rs 1.71 lakh crore in central dues to Bengal, and money to combat erosion.

“A lot of material has been formally sent on behalf of the state government. The visit is yet to be called off,” a source said.

Mamata’s decision to attend the Niti Aayog meeting was taken on July 18.

She had attended the first of these meetings after the launch of the Niti Aayog in 2015, and would then send Amit Mitra, the then state finance minister (now the special adviser on finance), to these events.

“This time, she wanted to directly raise a number of issues relating to the economic blockade of the state by the Union government, especially by way of stopping central funds due to us for years,” the source said.

On Tuesday, Mamata was asked in her Assembly chamber whether she would raise Bengal’s deprivation — which she spoke bitterly about while reacting to the Union budget — at the Niti Aayog.

She appeared to imply she would, saying she would not merely read out from a pre-written speech that the Centre expected to see before the meeting.