West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday alleged that "evil forces" threatened the Ramakrishna Mission, forcing it to cancel her trip to Chicago to celebrate the 125th anniversary of Swami Vivekananda's historic speech there.

"I think some evil forces had hatched a conspiracy. They did not want Ramakrishna Mission to organise the programme there. They also didn't want us, people of Bengal, to attend it. It pained me and saddened me a lot," Banerjee told the 125th-anniversary celebration of the Swami's Chicago speech. She was speaking at the Ramakrishna Mission's global headquarters Belur Math in neighbouring Howrah district.