Mamata to skip Modi swearing-in, will send 2 TMC leaders

Ending the suspense, West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee on Friday said she will be skipping Narendra Modi’s swearing-in ceremony on May 26 and will be sending state Finance Minister Amit Mitra and party general secretary Mukul Roy.

“A letter from PM-designate Narendra Modi to the chief inister inviting her to attend the swearing-in reached the state secretariat today. Amit Mitra and Mukul Roy will attend the swearing-in on behalf of the chief minister since she has a pre-scheduled programme on that day to celebrate poet Kazi Nazrul Islam’s birth anniversary,” said Urban Development Minister Firhad Hakim.

In his letter to Banerjee, Modi wrote the ‘people of India have given me an opportunity to serve the country as prime minister. The swearing-in ceremony has been organised at

Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi on May 26 at 6 pm. I am writing this to cordially invite you to the swearing-in ceremony. This is also an occasion for me to seek your blessings and good wishes. I will be grateful for early confirmation so that necessary arrangements can be made,’ Modi said in his letter.

Banerjee, whose party won 34 seats in the Lok Sabha, had a vitriolic war of words with Modi on the issue of illegal immigrants from Bangladesh in the recent Lok Sabha election campaign.