West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee with Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin  |  Photo Credit: ANI
Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Sunday called her Tamil Nadu counterpart, voicing concern about the “brazen misuse of power by the Governors of non-BJP ruled states”. She also suggested a meeting between the Opposition leaders at the helm of different states. News of the interaction was shared by MK Stalin who went on to add that a convention of Opposition CMs will soon happen in the national capital.
“Beloved Didi Mamata Banerjee telephoned me to share her concern and anguish on the constitutional overstepping and brazen misuse of power by the Governors of non-BJP ruled states. She suggested for a meeting of Opposition CMs,” he tweeted. He added, that he had assured the Trinamool Congress chief of the DMK’s “commitment to uphold State autonomy”.
The TMC-led state government has been locked in a war of words with West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar for quite some time now. Reports at the end of January this year had suggested that the TMC was mulling the possibility of bringing a motion against the Governor. At the time, a senior TMC MLA privy to the development had said that while a decision was yet to be taken, the move had been prompted by “the way the Governor has been insulting the Assembly and the speaker”.
Earlier on Saturday, Dhankhar prorogued the West Bengal Legislative Assembly with effect from 12 February 2022, prompting a sharp response from Stalin. The Tamil Nadu CM had hit out at the Governor, contending that his act to prorogue the West Bengal Assembly Session went against established norms and conventions.
“The ‘symbolic’ head of the state should be the role model to uphold the constitution. Beauty of democracy lies in extending mutual respect to each other,” he had added.
The remarks had prompted a sharp rejoinder from Dhankhar, who said that the Tamil Nadu CM’s “extremely harsh hurtful observations” were not in line with the facts.