Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday said she will boycott the opposition meeting convened by Congress president Sonia Gandhi on January 13 to protest the violence unleashed in the state allegedly by Left Front and Congress workers during a trade union strike.
The 24-hour nationwide strike by central trade unions in West Bengal on Wednesday was marked by incidents of violence and arson, blocking of railway tracks and roads by protesters trying to enforce the shutdown.
Banerjee said "double standards" of the Left Front and Congress will not be tolerated.
"I have decided to boycott the meeting convened by Sonia Gandhi on January 13 in New Delhi as I don't support the violence that the Left and Congress unleashed in West Bengal yesterday (Wednesday)," the chief minister said at the state Assembly.
Sonia Gandhi has called a meeting of opposition parties, including the Left, to discuss the situation arising out of violence on various university campuses and protests in the country over the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019.
Sources said the Congress and other parties are seeking to take the students movement forward and have lent support to their cause.
There has been violence in Delhi's Jamia Millia Islamia and Jawaharlal Nehru University, besides some other campuses across the country, in the recent past following student protests against the citizenship law and NRC.
The joint opposition move also assumes significance as it comes soon after Delhi election dates have been announced.
The elections to the 70-member Delhi Assembly will take place on February 8 and results will be declared on February 11, the Election Commission announced on Monday.
The last time a majority of opposition leaders got together was at the swearing-in of Hemant Soren as Jharkhand chief minister.
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