Mamata's allegation baseless, meant to emotionally blackmail people: WB Governor

Kolkata: Describing Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's wild allegations against him as 'baseless', West Bengal Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi on Wednesday stated that her claims were meant only to “emotionally blackmail him."

According to Tripathi, the chief minister's unprecedented attack amounted to "insulting and humiliating" him and his office. Tripathi also advised Banerjee and her cabinet ministers to focus on restoring peace in the state.

The Raj Bhavan on Wednesday said, "The Governor further reiterates that he did not utter a single word to insult or threaten the chief minister. Her allegation is baseless and meant only to emotionally blackmail people of West Bengal.

Raj Bhavan is not expected to tear off or throw away representations received by the Governor or his office from any person.

The statement further added, "True that the Chief Minister has been democratically elected by the people but it should not be forgotten that the Governor is also appointed by the President on recommendation of a democratically elected Union Government. In fact, the allegations of the Chief Minister amount to insult and humiliate the Governor and his Office.

The Governor is of the view that Raj Bhavan is not a Department of the State Government and it is open to every citizen to approach him for redressal of his or her grievances."

It added, "Whenever any such representation is received from anyone the same is forwarded to the State Government for appropriate action. The Governor says that instead of making accusations against him, it is better for the Chief Minister and her colleagues to direct their attention to maintain peace, law and order in the State without making any distinction on the basis of caste, creed or community."

Tripathi also tore into senior Trinamool Congress minister, Partha Chatterjee, who compared his behaviour with a BJP cadre and wondered if he became a BJP spokesperson.

On Wednesday morning Chatterjee, who is the education minister as well as the parliamentary affairs minister and Trinamool Congress secretary general, also accused the Raj Bhavan of becoming "BJP's den."

Addressing a press meet he said, "The Governor asked the chief minister to control her party. Who is he? Is he the BJP spokesperson? Can such comments be passed? He is the constitutional head of the state. Can he make such comments by crossing his limits? He is a lawyer. Does not he know about the Supreme Court order about the areas where he can exercise his powers? The tone he used while speaking to the chief minister sounded that the chief minister serves under him."

Training guns on the Governor, Chatterjee accused him of not trying to stop the violence between two groups. He added, "We remind him that the Raj Bhavan can never be the BJP's den."

He informed that the Trinamool wrote to President Pranab Mukherjee and Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh complaining against Tripathi.

"At around 4.30 pm we wrote to the President and sent a copy of our letter to Mr Singh also," Chatterjee said.

Countering Chatterjee's charges, the Raj Bhavan’s statement mentioned, "The Governor has been apprised of the statement of Shri Partha Chatterjee, Hon’ble
Education Minister and, regrets to say, that this is an attempt to cover the lapses of the State Government and divert the attention from the main issue of law and order. The Governor is fully aware of his constitutional obligations and limitations and needs no lesson from anyone on this count."

It affirmed, "It is wrong to say that Raj Bhavan has become the office of the BJP or the RSS."