Union minister of state for rural development Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti on Friday rebuked Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Mahua Moitra for calling her ‘liar’ for allegedly ‘escaping’ a scheduled meeting with a delegate of TMC leaders. The Union minister claimed she had to wait for nearly 2.5 hours as Moitra allgedly demanded a meeting independently, instead of a delegation.

The TMC delegation along with the beneficiaries of centrally MGNREGA scheme carried out a protest after they were allegedly denied a scheduled meeting with the Union minister over the alleged withholding of central dues of funds for several rural development schemes including the Prime Minister Awas Yojana.

“They ( TMC leaders) came to create a spectacle and not to discuss on the matter…They did not want to meet me. They kept changing their demands every half hour, first said that 5 MPs would be part of the delegation, then said that 10 MPs would meet,” Niranjan Jyoti told news agency ANI.

Turning down Moitra’s allegations, the Union minister decribed how the TMC MP sought a meeting independtly along with few beneficiaries of the central scheme.

She agreed to meet the delegate, however, without the public, who she claimed were TMC workers. “They wanted to meet me with public. I said, ‘since the allegations were made by the (West Bengal) government, therefore, the discussions should be there between governments’. I could meet the public later,” she added.

Niranjan Jyoti further reiterated the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) allegation that the TMC-led West Bengal government misappropriated the funds related with the funds allotted by the Centre.