Mamata Blocks Bengal Governor on Twitter
Picture file. CM Mamata Banerjee of TMC at a campaign rally in Chandipur on Sunday / Photo: Hindustan Times
“>
Picture file. CM Mamata Banerjee of TMC at a campaign rally in Chandipur on Sunday / Photo: Hindustan Times
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar clashed again, this time over the latter’s remark “the state is turning into a gas chamber of democracy”.
On Monday, Mamata blocked the governor from accessing her Twitter microblogging platform, saying she was “irritated” by Dhankhar’s repeated “unconstitutional” and “unethical” comments.
“He (Jagdeep Dhankhar) tweets something every day abusing me or insulting my officers. He says unconstitutional and unethical things. He gives instructions not advice. He treats an elected government like work forced. That’s why I blocked it on my Twitter account,” Mamata told the media in Kolkata, the capital of West Bengal.
The state’s main constitutional figure – a federal appointee – and the head of government of Bengal have repeatedly been at odds over political and governance issues over the past three years.
Earlier, too, the state had witnessed nasty feuds between the two, with Mamata accusing the governor of “attempting to destabilize the elected government” of his ruling Trinamool Congress party at the behest of the Bharatiya Janata party.
In May last year, Mamata single-handedly won a landslide victory in state elections for the third consecutive time, fending off anti-incumbency and fending off a huge challenge from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s BJP.