Gujarat’s hardline Chief Minister Narendra Modi will come to Delhi on Thursday to attend the National Development Council meeting of Chief Ministers.
The NDC meeting will be chaired by Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh. This will be Modi’s first visit to the national capital.
After attending the NDC meet, Modi is also expected to pay a visit to BJP’s national headquarters and meet senior party leaders, including the ailing Atal Bihari Vajpayee at his residence.
NDC, which is the country’s apex policy making body, is headed by the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and has all state Chief Ministers, Cabinet Ministers and members of the Planning Commission on its board.
Modi, the firebrand Gujarat leader, has in the past criticized the centre and the Planning Commission for giving a step-motherly treatment and lack of assistance on various issues.
However, this time the Centre is gearing up to counter him in the NDC meeting.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will be giving this meeting a miss. She will be represented by the state’s finance minister Amit Mitra.
Among others Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa will attend the meeting today. Jayalalithaa, who attended Modi’s swearing-in ceremony yesterday in Ahmedabad, also chaired a meeting of the Ministers at the Secretariat, as part of the points to be discussed during the National Development Council meeting.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar’s demand for special status to his state may not be accepted at the meet after the Planning Commission said it did not meet the existing criteria.
Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Himachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, Tripura and Uttarakhand are among the states that have been granted special category status by the Centre.
–PTI