Kolkata, July 26 (IANS): West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's decision to attend the NITI Aayog meeting in New Delhi to be chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday has attracted scathing criticisms from the CPI-M and the Congress' state unit.

CPI-M Rajya Sabha member and senior advocate of Calcutta High Court, Bikas Ranjan Bhattacharya said that this development once against proves that Trinamool Congress is the clandestine agent of the BJP.

"When the Chief Ministers of all the non-BJP ruled states have announced their decision to stay away from the meeting, Mamata Banerjee stood out as the exception. In the past also she has expressed her weakness towards the BJP. She had earlier described the BJP as her natural ally. So this is nothing new on her part," he said.

Echoing the CPI-M leader, state Congress leader Manoj Bhattacharya said that since the formation of the opposition INDIA bloc with Trinamool being officially a part of it, Banerjee had been trying to create a division there.

"This she had been doing to benefit the BJP indirectly. Her latest decision to join the NITI Aayog meeting simply justifies her stand," he said.

However, Trinamool leaders claimed that such criticism of the opposition parties is baseless since the Chief Minister has already clarified that she is attending the meeting not just to raise her voice of protest against financial deprivation of West Bengal but also of the other non-BJP-ruled states.

"The Chief Minister has already cleared her stand on why she is attending the meeting. There was not any specific agenda of the INDIA. bloc about attending the meeting. Trinamool Congress will surely be a part of the opposition bloc. But surely it has its own identity. So the decision taken by the Chief Minister in the interest of West Bengal is totally justified," Trinamool leader Kunal Ghosh said.