New Delhi: Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury fanned the flames of controversy triggered by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's claims that the BJP-led central government muted her mic during the NITI Aayog meeting in Delhi on Saturday.

Responding to Banerjee's claims, Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury said, "The things that Mamata Banerjee is saying regarding the NITI Aayog meeting, I feel like she is lying... It is very surprising if a state's CM wouldn't be allowed to speak. Mamata Banerjee knew what would be happening there... She had the script."

Mamata Banerjee’s accusations have been strongly denied by the Centre.

After walking out of the meeting, the Trinamool Congress leader alleged that her microphone had been muted and that she was only permitted to speak for five minutes.

"I said you (Centre) shouldn't discriminate against state governments. I wanted to speak, but my mic was muted. I was allowed to speak only for five minutes, while people before me spoke for 10-20 minutes," Banerjee told reporters, reported Times Now.

"I was the only one from the opposition who was participating but I still was not allowed to speak. This is insulting," she added.

The central government refuted this claim through the Press Information Bureau's fact-checking platform, which labelled Banerjee's allegations as "misleading".

"It is being claimed that the microphone of CM, West Bengal was switched off during the 9th Governing Council Meeting of NITI Aayog. This claim is Misleading. The clock only showed that her speaking time was over. Even the bell was not rung to mark it," the Press Information Bureau said in a post on X (formerly Twitter).

Earlier, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman rejected Banerjee's charge, asserting that every Chief Minister was given a specified time to speak.

"CM Mamata Banerjee attended the NITI Aayog meeting. We all heard her. Every CM was given the allotted time, and that was displayed on the screen present before every table... She said in the media that her mic was put off. That is completely false. Every CM was given their due time to speak," Sitharaman was quoted as saying by Times Now.

She added that Banerjee should "speak the truth rather than build a false narrative against the government."

Storming out of the meeting held at the Rashtrapati Bhavan Cultural Centre, Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee told reporters, "I have come out boycotting the meeting. Chandrababu Naidu was given 20 minutes to speak, CMs of Assam, Goa, Chhattisgarh spoke for 10-12 minutes. I was stopped from speaking after just five minutes. This is unfair. From the opposition side, only I am representing here, and attending this meeting because of the greater interest that cooperative federalism should be strengthened.”

This was the ninth session of the council, the leading public policy advisory body of the central government.

The NITI Aayog comprises Prime Minister Narendra Modi as Chairman, Chief Ministers from all states, Lieutenant Governors of several Union Territories, and various union ministers as members.

Opposition supports Mamata

AAP Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Singh said Banerjee attended the meeting, which was boycotted by the Opposition parties, to reveal the truth.

"They use the ED and CBI and send the leaders of the opposition party to jail... So the statement of Mamata Banerjee is correct... When a protest was held in Parliament that discrimination had been done against the states in the budget, funds had not been allocated to several states... Her motive for going to the meeting was to know the truth and she got to know that and then gave a statement," Singh was quoted as saying by the Times Now.

Opposition leaders, including Chief Ministers of three Congress-ruled states – Karnataka's Siddaramaiah, Himachal Pradesh's Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, and Telangana's Revanth Reddy –skipped the NITI Aayog meeting. Kerala CM Vijayan and Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann also remained absent.