\'Some people act like BJP mouthpieces\': Mamata slams President\'s rule

Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday hit out at Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari for his recommendation to impose President's Rule in the state, saying that "some people are acting like BJP mouthpieces".

"I generally do not say anything on constitutional posts. But there are some people who are behaving like BJP mouthpieces. You have seen what is going on in my state. They want to run a parallel administration," she told reporters at state secretariat 'Nabanna' here.

Banerjee said that centre and state governments are elected governments and the federal structure should be respected.

"As per constitutional provisions, the federal structure must work. Centre and state governments are elected governments. But, there are some people who are dominating too much. They should not supersede the central government. The Centre must take care of this," she further said.

Banerjee's comments came in the backdrop of Maharashtra coming under the President's Rule on Tuesday after President Ram Nath Kovind signed the notification following the recommendation of the Union Cabinet, which acted on the report from Koshyari.

The Governor had recommended the imposition of President's Rule in the wake of the political stalemate over the government formation in the state.

Shiv Sena led by Uddhav Thackeray emerged as the second-largest party in last month's Maharashtra assembly elections with 56 seats.

The BJP was the single largest party and won 105 seats. The two parties, who fought the elections together, were at loggerheads over power-sharing.

Shiv Sena insisted that the two parties had a '50-50' power-sharing agreement before the elections.

Fadnavis said that Shiv Sena was not promised the chief ministerial post for two-and-a-half years when the alliance was sealed before the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

Meanwhile, Banerjee said that the central government is yet to release Rs 17,000 crores to West Bengal.

"As the Centre did not release devolution component (central tax 42 per cent) till October, we suffered a loss of Rs 640 crores. Moreover, Centre is supposed to release Rs 17,000 crores which the state is yet to receive. Economic growth is so low that every state is suffering," she said.

Responding to a question on the alleged vandalisation of Swami Vivekananda's statue inside the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) campus in Delhi, the Chief Minister said, "It is a sad day for us.

 

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