Jagdeep Dhankhar is known for his almost daily attacks on Mamata Banerjee. (Archive)
Calcutta:
West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar should be removed from office, five legislators from the Trinamool Congress have written to President Ram Nath Kovind, citing political bias against the Mamata Banerjee government and violations of the constitution.
Dhankhar “has designed to destabilize the machinery of state government as a whole,” Trinamool MPs Sudip Bandyopadhyay, Derek O’Brien, Kalyan Banerjee, Sukhendu Sekhar Roy and Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar said in a very critical letter to the governor.
An angry governor responded, claiming that free and fair elections are not held in the state and that it is his duty to ensure that people exercise their right to vote without fear.
The call on the president to act against Dhankhar comes amid an increasingly strident political atmosphere in Bengal ahead of the elections, in which the governor assists the BJP with almost daily attacks on the government.
Endless critical tweets and statements directed against the Government of West Bengal, the Honorable Chief Minister, AITC – with a political slant – are likely to cause public order problems. Furthermore, such tendencies and inclinations on the part of the constitutional head of the state to openly supporting a political party hits the very roots of federalism, ”the deputies wrote.
They accused Mr. Dhankhar of “transgressing” other authorities such as the Electoral Commission and the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG).
“Apologizing to the honorable chief minister of state for an unfortunate incident in the convoy of the BJP president is another transgression of the governor,” they wrote in reference to the attack on the convoy of the head of the BJP, JP Nadda, earlier this month.
“The Honorable Shri Dhankhar has also not skimped in the state legislature. He is sitting down and refusing to sign various bills passed by the West Bengal Legislature. Not only is he not signing the bills, he is even asking for” explanations. “From the Honorable Speaker. This is a direct insult and an attack on the Sovereignty of the State Legislature,” they said.
As a representative of the central government in the state, the Governor of Bengal has directly positioned himself as an antagonist to Mamata Banerjee since his appointment last year and frequently supports the long-running BJP campaign to oust the Chief Minister.
In response to the letter, Mr. Dhankhar said: “Free and fair elections are not held without fear (in the state).” The governor said he does not care who people vote for, but it is his duty to ensure that they can exercise their right to vote without intimidation.
The BJP said that the governor acts within his constitutional parameters while the Trinamool Congress “is afraid.”
“I do not believe that the TMC’s action to ask the president to remove the governor will have any impact. The president will be based on his own understanding of the role of the governor,” said BJP National Secretary General Kailash Vijayvargiya.
“The governor is acting within his constitutional parameters as head of state. The TMC is doing it because he is afraid,” added the senior BJP leader.
.
