Mamata hints at pressure behind Kumar Mangalam Birla skipping factory inauguration

Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday hinted that industrialist Kumar Mangalam Birla’s decision to skip the inauguration of a paint manufacturing facility of his group by her might have been influenced by external pressure.

Birla, chairman of the Aditya Birla Group, was scheduled to attend the inauguration ceremony in Kharagpur on Thursday. However, he sent a message to the chief minister telling her that he is cancelling the visit because of health issues.

"I said in a press conference yesterday that I would inaugurate the Birla Opus factory, which is now complete. Within half an hour, I got a message. A letter citing health problem and apologising for cancelling the programme was sent to me," Banerjee said, while speaking to journalists at Kolkata airport on her return from flood and landslide-hit areas of north Bengal.

"I do not blame him. I think this is the work of a highly loaded virus that threatens everyone," she said.

Though she did not elaborate further, it appears that she implied that political pressure led Birla to skip the event.