Ego prevailed over public service: West Bengal Governor on Mamata Banerjee skipping PM meet

Kolkata, June 01: West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar on Tuesday stirred fresh controversy by saying "ego prevailed over public service" on Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee skipping Prime Minister Narendra Modi's meeting to review post-cyclone damages on May 28.

Dhankhar said the chief minister had called him before the meeting at Kalaikunda in Paschim Medinipur district and indicated that she won't attend it if Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari is present in it.

"Constrained by false narrative to put record straight: On May 27 at 2316 hrs CM @MamataOfficial messaged 'may I talk? urgent'," Dhankhar tweeted. "Thereafter on phone indicated boycott by her & officials of PM Review Meet #CycloneYaas if LOP @SuvenduWB attends it. Ego prevailed over Public service," he said in another Twitter post.

Besides Adhikari, Dhankhar and BJP MP Debosree Chaudhuri were present at the meeting. The chief minister said she skipped the meeting because "a BJP MLA has no locus to be present in a PM-CM meeting".

Adhikari has defeated Banerjee in Nandigram seat in the recent assembly elections. In a letter to the prime minister on Monday, Banerjee had written, "I wanted to have a quiet word with you, a meeting between the PM and the CM as usual. You, however, revised the structure of the meeting to include a local MLA from your party and I am of the view that he had no locus to be present in a PM-CM meeting."

Banerjee had also mentioned in the letter that she had no objection to the presence of the governor and other Union ministers in the meeting.