Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee skips governor's dinner for president

West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee tonight chose not to attend the banquet hosted by governor MK Narayanan in honour of Pratibha Patil.

The move is seen as a reaction to his being kept away by railway minister Mamata Banerjee from the ceremony attended by the president to mark the start of a new Metro Rail project in Kolkata.

"It is is for the first time that the chief minister is not attending the banquet hosted by the governor in honour of the president," a senior official in the governor's office said.

For the record, the official said the chief minister had another engagement as a result of which he was unable to attend.

However, minister-in-waiting for president, Taran Das was deputed by the chief minister for the banquet which was attended by 55 other senior officials from the army and the state administration and Rashtrapti Bhavan.