Mamata Banerjee, Jagdeep Dhankar lock horns again over latter's Cooch Behar visit

As per his tweets, Dhankhar is scheduled to visit the Cooch Behar district on Thursday.

On Friday, he plans to visit camps in Assam, where alleged victims of violence in Bengal have fled for shelter.

Following his plan to visit the violence-hit Cooch Behar district, Banerjee wrote to Dhankar requesting him not to break "well-established norms" and go off on unilateral visits across the state.

Banerjee virtually warned him against going anywhere without state clearance.

"I find from social media that you are unilaterally proceeding to the district of Cooch Behar on 13.5.2021 and sadly I find that to be violative of the long-standing norms as evolved over several decades," Banerjee wrote.

"I therefore would expect that you will kindly follow the well-established norms of protocol and desist from abrupt decisions with regard to field visits," she added.

In response to the CM's letter, Dhankar wrote back to Banerjee stating that he was "appalled" to learn that she thought he needed her government's permission to go anywhere and that he was "not persuaded" by her stance for which "there would be no sane takers".

In his own two-page letter, he wrote of "elementary ignorance of constitutional provisions" on the part of CM.

The letter does not mention whether the governor will continue with his visit to Cooch Behar on Thursday or not.

"In response @MamataOfficial urged her to revisit her stance & commit to constitution that by oath she is obligated to uphold & follow. This is time to address issues being faced by people in deep distress. Assured her of my fullest cooperation within constitutional parameters," he wrote in his tweet.

Banerjee and Dhankhar have faced off on post-poll violence ever since the day the latter was sworn in as Chief Minister of Bengal for the third time.

Soon after the ceremony, Banerjee said her government's immediate priority was Covid management to which the governor responded by saying that post-poll violence should be addressed immediately.

Mamata Banerjee then took the mic back from him and said the post-poll violence had taken place at a time when the Election Commission was in charge of law and order in the state.

In an interaction with the media sometime later the same day, the governor insisted that Mamata Banerjee was in charge when clashes erupted.