The External Affairs Ministry Wednesday dismissed reports that West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was denied permission to visit Chicago to attend the world Hindu conference. Spokesperson of the ministry Raveesh Kumar said the government did not receive any request for clearance for her visit.

"We did not receive any request for clearance regarding the visit of Ms Mamata Banerjee to Chicago for the event. The reports about the denial of permission are, therefore, not true," he said in response to a question on the reports. The West Bengal chief minister had yesterday said, "I wanted to go to Chicago... I could not go there because of an unholy conspiracy hatched by certain people. This incident has given me a lot of pain."