Congress MP from Rajkot, Kunwarjibhai Bavalia, attended a meeting called by Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi last Saturday to urge state MPs to aggressively take up issues relating to the state in Parliament’s budget session beginning Thursday. The Congress MP accepted an invitation from Modi, a leader accused by the Congress and other parties of complicity in the 2002 Gujarat riots. Moreover, Modi has been constantly accusing the Centre of its step-motherly treatment to Gujarat.

Modi had invited all Gujarat MPs across the party lines, but Bavalia was the only Congress MP to attend the meet.

“As the convenor of 11 Congress MPs here, I attended the meet,” Bavalia told HT. “We discussed the issues in Gujarat and I offered to arrange a meeting of the Gujarat MPs with the PM or Union ministers.”

Bavalia, however, underlined that he voiced his disagreement over the charges made by the Gujarat government that the Centre was not releasing adequate funds for the state’s development. “I said the Centre is giving funds, but the question is how you are utilising it.”