Parliamentarians from the Dravida Munnetra Kazgham and the Trinamool skipped the swearing-in ceremony of Narendra Modi who took over as Prime Minister for the second consecutive time.
DMK MPs decided to stay away since an invitation was not extended to party president M.K. Stalin. Mr. Stalin was present at the oath-taking ceremony of Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy during the day.
Tamil Nadu and Kerala were the two States where the BJP failed to get a single seat in the 2019 Lok Sabha election.
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The DMK-led Opposition alliance won 37 out of 38 seats that went to the polls in the State.
“We were not expecting an invitation from them and neither were we dying to attend it anyway. All parliamentarians as a norm are called for the events. Our invitation cards were dumped at the Tamil Nadu house and not sent individually to any of us,” a top DMK leader said.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister E. Palaniswamy and actor-turned political leader Rajinikanth were frontbenchers at the ceremony.
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West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool president Mamata Banerjee declined the invitation after BJP leaders accused her party of political murders.
In a tweet she said the “oath-taking ceremony is an august occasion to celebrate democracy, not one that should be devalued by any political party.”
The BJP claimed that 54 BJP workers were murdered by the Trinamool Congress during the campaign period. Ms. Banerjee has denied this, saying there have been no political murders in her State.
Sources said that after Ms Banerjee’s refusal the invitation was extended to Rajya Sabha leader of the party Derek O’Brien who also did not attend. None of the other TMC MPs were present too.
Telugu Desam Party chief Chandrababu Naidu was also not invited. The Left parties stayed away. The CPI (M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury though was invited by Rashtrapati Bhavan but he could not make it to the event because of state executive meeting in Kerala. The Communist Party of India MPs too were absent.
Scotching the speculation, the Congress was present in full force. Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, Congress president Rahul Gandhi and Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad were in attendance.