Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday skipped the meeting of the Union Cabinet which was convened to take a decision on recommending the imposition of President's Rule in Jharkhand.
Banerjee was in Delhi when the Cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh took place but she did not attend, official sources said.
It is not the first time that Banerjee has stayed away from the meeting of the Union Cabinet since she has skipped it on previous occasions too.
Banerjee's action came a day after Home Minister P Chidambaram debunked the 'political conspiracy' theory floated by her to target the Communist party of India - Marxist in connection with the Gyaneshwari Express derailment in Midnapore last Saturday, in which 148 persons were killed.
In a rebuff to Banerjee, Chidambaram said the 'needle of suspicion' in the derailment pointed to Maoists or organisations linked to them.
Banerjee had reportedly skipped quite a few Cabinet meetings last year, mostly because she had to 'rush' to Kolkata.
Last year, Banerjee once almost walked out of a Cabinet meeting over the proposed land acquisition bill.