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Bengal Guv calls Mamata’s reasons for skipping PM’s review a ‘false narrative’
In a tweet early on Tuesday, Dhankhar claimed that Banerjee had messaged him on Thursday, on the eve of the meeting, and hinted that she may boycott it if Suvendu Adhikari was also going to be present
West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar, who shares a strained relation with the state government, on Tuesday accused chief minister Mamata Banerjee of giving a ‘false narrative’ on why she recently skipped the review meeting on cyclone Yaas chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
In a tweet early on Tuesday, Dhankhar claimed that Banerjee had messaged him on Thursday, on the eve of the meeting, and hinted that she may boycott it if Suvendu Adhikari was also going to be present.
“Constrained by false narrative to put record straight: On May 27 at 2316 hrs CM @MamataOfficial messaged “may i talk? urgent”. Thereafter on phone indicated boycott by her & officials of PM Review Meet #CycloneYaas if LOP @SuvenduWB attends it. Ego prevailed over Public service,” the Governor tweeted.
Even though the chief minister skipped the Prime Minsiter’s review meeting on May 28 at Kalaikunda in West Midnapore district, she met him for a few minutes to hand over a report on the damage caused by cyclone Yaas in the state.
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“I wanted to have a quiet word with you, a meeting between the PM and CM as usual. You however revised the structure of the meeting to include a local MLA from your party and I am of the view that he had no locus to be present in a PM-CM meeting. You had invited the Governor and some Union ministers, which I had not objected to. But an individual MLA having no locus attending the meeting was unacceptable,” Banerjee wrote in a five-page letter to the Prime Minister on Monday.
Even though the TMC swept the recently ended assembly polls by winning 213 seats out of the 292 constituencies where polls were held and returned to power for the third consecutive term, Banerjee was defeated by her protege-turned-adversary Suven Adhikari who joined the BJP in December 2020 and contested from Nandigram in East Midnapore.
She also alleged that the state’s chief secretary continuously sent messages to a senior official accompanying the Prime Minister to sort out issues or arrange a meeting between the PM and CM, but to no avail.
The issue of CM skipping the PM’s review meeting triggered a political storm with the BJP’s top leadership, including the party’s national president JP Nadda and Union home minister Amit Shah, slamming Banerjee.
Banerjee, however, said she had already met the PM and left with his permission as she had scheduled meetings to attend.
She told mediapersons on Saturday that her flight from Sagar to Kalaikunda (where the PM was scheduled to hold the meeting) was delayed by at least 20 minutes for security reasons. At Kalaikunda, her flight had to hover for 10 – 15 minutes. When she reached the Kalaikunda air base, the PM’s meeting had started and the SPG made her wait.
Responding to the Governor’s tweet, TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh said, “Why isn’t the Governor tweeting anything about the Centre not supplying adequate supply of medicine, oxygen and vaccine to the state? Did he raise any questions on why the Opposition leaders are not called to attend a Prime Minister’s meeting in a state ruled by the BJP? He just wants to create confrontation and confusion.”
