Dhankhar summons 2 am Assembly meeting; TMC says it was a typo

In a strange development, Jagdeep Dhankhar, Governor of West Bengal has summoned the Legislative Assembly at 2 am on March 7.

However, later on Thursday, the Governor explained that he summoned the Assembly after midnight while accepting the decision of Mamata Banerjee’s cabinet. However, Biman Banerjee, speaker of the legislative assembly said that it was a typographical error and Dhankhar “could have ignored it”.

The speaker further said that the administration must resolve the issue through conversation, otherwise, “if a new summons does not come to me, I will have to call a session at night.”

Jagdeep Dhankhar took to Twitter and wrote: “Invoking article 174 (1) of Constitution, accepting Cabinet Decision, Assembly has been summoned to meet on March 07, 2022 at 2.00 A.M,”

“Assembly meeting after midnight at 2.00 A.M. is unusual and history of sorts in making, but that is Cabinet Decision,” the tweet further added.

In another development, Jagdeep Dhankhar called out Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and said that the Raj Bhavan had received no recommendation for summoning the state Legislative Assembly.

This comes after media reports claimed that the Trinamool Congress (TMC) leader had accused Dhankhar of not signing files. “No such recommendation for summoning West Bengal Legislative Assembly by CM Mamata Banerjee has been received at Raj Bhavan for consideration of the Governor,” Raj Bhavan’s press release read.

“It’s also indicated that no files, pertaining to appointment or bills or otherwise are pending for Governor’s consideration,” it added.

Further, in the release, the Governor said that Budget papers can be considered after assembly is summoned.

Recently, Dhankhar had written to Mamata Banerjee and had urged her to “make it convenient for an interaction” at Raj Bhavan as “lack of response to issues flagged has potential to lead to constitutional stalemate”.

Notably, following a consistent banter between the two, Banerjee had blocked the governor from Twitter.

Even though the face-off between the Trinamool Congress government and the Governor began in 2019, months after the latter took charge, the bitter relationship plummeted to the unprecedented low in recent months.

Mamata Banerjee has blocked Dhankhar on social media platforms, and her party has declared that it will move a motion, condemning the Governor’s actions at the budget session of the state assembly in March.

With inputs from ANI.