TMC complains to Amit Shah on governor running ‘parallel admin’

Kolkata: The Trinamul Congress is planning to raise West Bengal governor Jagdeep Dhankar’s style of functioning in the winter session of the Parliament to attack the BJP. On Sunday, it complained to Union home minister Amit Shah against Mr Dhankar of running “parallel administration” in the state.

Chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s party also requested Mr Shah to summon Mr Dhankar to New Delhi and guide him about his constitutional limitations. Within few hours of the Trinamul’s complaint to Mr Shah, Mr Dhankar shot back to the ruling party. He not only rubbished the allegation of running “parallel administration,” but also wondered, which department he has been running.

Leader of the Trinamul parliamentary party in the Lok Sabha Sudip Bandopadhyay, who met Mr Shah in New Delhi, said, “The governor is running a parallel administration in the state. This is against the parliamentary democracy. We have told the Union home minister to summon the governor and give him proper guidance.” He elaborated, “The state government would never oppose if the governor wants to attend his scheduled programmes after consulting it. But, he is not taking the cooperation from the state police. He has brought the Central reserve paramilitary force from the Centre.”

Mr Bandopadhyay added, “We told the Union home minister to make the governor aware of the guidance, so that he can continue in cooperation with the state government. The governor’s role in the state cannot be supported anyway. He has been continuing with his programmes keeping the state government in dark.”The TMC MP of North Kolkata said,” I have appealed all the Opposition parties in Lok Sabha for their support when we would raise it at the business advisory committee meeting for discussion on the floor of the House.” However, Mr Dhankar, on the sidelines of an event, said, “All I can say is this is news to me.”

He added, “I am not aware of any development. No one has got in touch with me. What someone does is somebody’s right. But if I were to run a government, I would have gone to Farakka in a helicopter, not gone by road on 700 kms both ways. Do I run? You are the vigilant section of the society, the media.” He argued, “If you think I run a government, please tell me which department I am running. The chief secretary of the state has not seen me, when he took charge. You see it is not my job to react to what is being said. I am not in the game of politics.”