According to sources in the party, Banerjee expects a probable price hike, which will damage her pro-people image, so she has decided to skip the meeting at the last moment. Instead, she is gearing up for a meeting with state Congress leaders over the issue of Gorkhaland.

Banerjee was scheduled to board a flight from Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose airport at 5.45 pm this evening. She, however, cancelled her plans.

As per records till September last year, the Union minister had missed seven out of 12 Cabinet meetings.

Union Minister of State for Rural Development Sisir Adhikary said: “She has some important work here. This is not the first time that she will be absent from a Cabinet meeting. Why create a controversy over it?”

Party sources, meanwhile, said that Banerjee has already expressed her opposition to hike in petroleum prices. By skipping the Cabinet meeting, she intends to drive home her ‘dissenting stand’ and project her pro-people image in Bengal. “We do not want the UPA to hike the prices and put burden on the common man. However, we expect that the Centre to hike the prices, and we do not want to be a part of it,” said a senior Trinamool leader.

Sources stated that with the crucial Assembly elections in the state due next year, Banerjee will distance herself from any decision of the UPA Cabinet, which is expected to be unpopular. “Tomorrow, the CPM will criticise her over the rise in prices of petroleum products. We want to clearly indicate that we have no part in it,” said the leader.

“There has been an abnormal increase in the prices of essential commodities, and I am against a fresh increase in the prices of petroleum products, especially LPG,” Banerjee had said earlier.