KOLKATA: An aircraft with West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on board hovered in the night sky for about 40 minutes on Wednesday due to a technical issue, sources said.
The Trinamool Congress smelt in the incident a conspiracy to "kill" Banerjee for protesting strongly against the Central government's demonetisation initiative.
The plane operated by a private airline took off from Patna an hour late at 7.35 p.m.
Due to technical reasons, before landing at the Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport here, it hovered over the Kolkata sky and then finally landed around 9 p.m.
Airport officials said such developments were normal and an every day affair in aviation.
But State Urban Development Minister Firhad Hakim alleged that the Air Traffic Control delayed in giving the green signal to the plane to land despite the "pilot pointing out that it was running out of fuel".
"This seriously inconvenienced our Chief Minister and other passengers. It is nothing but a conspiracy to kill her as she is going round the entire country to build up a mass movement against demonetisation and is one of the foremost protesters against the central move," said Hakim, who accompanied Banerjee in the flight.