TMC team meets guv, says steps must be taken to ensure central agencies work independently

An eight-member delegation of the TMC met Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar on Tuesday, emphasising the need to ensure central agencies work devoid of any political leanings.

The delegation, describing the two-hour-long meeting as a "positive session", said such dialogue would occur in the future, too.

The governor on his part said that he has urged the delegation, which was led by state Education Minister Bratya Basu, to make sure that the TMC government acted as per law.

Basu, during the meet, submitted a memorandum to Dhankhar, drawing his attention to Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari's statements on CBI probes in various cases, including the Narada tapes and Saradha scams.

''It is after a long time a TMC delegation met Dhankhar and submitted its deputation to him. Such meetings will happen in the future as well. We believe he is the governor of all in the state,'' he said.

Basu also said that Dhankhar has assured them that necessary steps would be taken to address TMC's concern.

Maintaining that the governor is the constitutional head of the state while Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is the elected head, he said that interaction between Dhankhar and the TMC leadership, which ''should have taken place earlier, will continue now.'' TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh, who was also a part of the delegation, alleged that those in the BJP are being kept "above the law".

''During the meeting, we highlighted political misuse of central agencies in various cases by the BJP. ''Suvendu Adhikari is making statements to say who would face action by the CBI or ED. It is as if the BJP is controlling these agencies. He has now claimed that the TMC government will be shown the door after 2024 elections, two years before its tenure ends,'' he pointed out.

Adhikari had on Monday said that the TMC government won't last till 2026.

The TMC and Dhankhar have been at loggerheads over various issues since he took charge as the governor of the state. The ruling party had in the past accused him of partisan behavior, and even called him an ''agent of the BJP''.

What seemed to be an apparent thaw in the thorny relationship, with the meeting held at Raj Bhavan during the day, did not last long, however, as Dhankhar, shortly after, tweeted that he has requested the delegation to "curb" syndicate and mafia culture.

The governor, in his tweet, also said that he has assured the delegation that its representation ''will be looked into from every perspective''.

"Guv urged the delegation @AITCofficial -Ensure Govt. acts according to Law & not Law of Ruler; Curb Syndicate & Mafia that as per High Court is in every nook & corner of state; Stop appeasement & communalization in victim relief; Ensure CM performs her constitutional duty (sic)," he wrote.

Ghosh, in response, claimed that Dhankhar's tweet was "distorted and politically motivated".

"The tweet from @jdhankhar1 regarding delegation is one sided and as a voice of a BJP person. He has not written @AITCofficial delegation's counter words and allegations against central Govt. This distorted and politically motivated tweet was not expected from chair of Governor (sic)," he tweeted.

Other members of the delegation were senior leaders Sashi Panja, Tapas Roy, Sayoni Ghosh, Firoza Bibi, Biswajit Deb and Arjun Singh, who recently returned to the TMC from the BJP.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)