Mamata meets Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar; BJP, CPI(M) say its usual practice

Kolkata, Jan 06: Amid the rancour between the state government and Raj Bhavan, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee called on Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar, a development sources in the secretariat called a "courtesy visit".

Banerjee went to the Raj Bhavan straightaway from the state secretariat Nabanna. The meeting between the two was seen in the political circles as the usual practice.

"It''s only a courtesy visit. There is nothing official in it. The honourable CM wanted to exchange New Year greetings with the Governor," a highly-placed official in the state secretariat told PTI.

She was with the governor for around one hour. Banerjee''s visit assume significance in the backdrop of soured relations between the governor and the ruling Trinamool Congress following Dhankhar''s frequent tweets on law and order situation, issues of governance, possibility of free and fair polls and other issues.

Later Dhankhar tweeted, "Chief Minister called on me today at Raj Bhavan. First Lady Smt Sudesh Dhankhar and myself exchanged new year greetings with the hon''ble chief minister".

The governor also posted a few photographs of the meeting on his Twitter handle. State BJP General Secretary Sayantan Basu told PTI that the chief minister can always meet the governor in a democracy and "I should not comment on that".

"However, we expect the CM to follow the ''Raj Dharma'' by addressing the issues flagged by the governor from time to time," Basu said. Referring to CM''s visit, left front legislature party leader and CPI(M) MLA Sujan Chakraborty said the chief minister can definitely visit the governor.

"But, my point is that while all her programmes and schedules are decided and made known days before the event, why she had to visit the governor all of a sudden and in such a hush-hush manner with everyone coming to know about it at the last minute," he commented.

Recalling Banerjee''s visit to the central leader in the past "when the going had gone tough for her", Chakraborty quipped "is this visit also aimed at ''paap skhalan'' (atonement for sin) or some other similar reason."