Kolkata, June 23 The ongoing tussle between the state government and governor Jagdeep Dhankhar turned murkier after West Bengal assembly Speaker Biman Banerjee complained against the constitutional head of the state for interfering into the matters related to parliamentary democracy and functioning of the House.
In a virtual meeting with the Speakers of different states and Speaker of the Lok Sabha Om Birla on Tuesday evening, Banerjee complained that there has been excessive interference of Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar in parliamentary democracy and the functioning of the Assembly.
The Bengal Speaker also complained that despite being passed by the Assembly, several bills are lying with the governor as he has not signed them. This is unprecedented in the history of West Bengal's parliamentary democracy. Such a thing has never happened before, the speaker had said.
Dhankhar, who is on a tour to North Bengal for the last seven days, has run into controversy on several occasions with the state government.
Recently, Dhankhar has given a letter to the chief minister criticising her government's stand on post poll violence. In the letter Dhankhar urged the chief minister to be active to contain the violence in the state.
Dhankhar even went to Delhi to meet President Ram Nath Kovind and Union Home Minister Amit Shah and it is expected that he has given a detailed report on the 'lawlessness' in the state. Dhankhar also met several union ministers and discussed with them several issues of the state.
Sources in the assembly confirmed that the Speaker also held the election commission responsible for the uncontrolled virus infection in the state. Speaking in the virtual meeting, Banerjee had said that the state government including chief minister Mamata Banerjee had urged several times to reduce the number of phases but the election commission was adamant and that resulted in such a Covid situation in the state.
"We have been saying for a long time that the present governor is acting as the mouthpiece of a specific political party. He is not only interfering in the functioning of the state of affairs but is also maligning the West Bengal government," senior TMC leader and MLA Tapas Roy said.
However, the West Bengal unit of the BJP came out in support of the governor and claimed that he had exposed the truth.
"The TMC is angry with the governor as he has exposed the lawless situation in the state. There have been complaints against me earlier, but all of them were baseless," BJP state chief Dilip Ghosh said.
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