In a rare sight indicating some recovery in their choppy relationship Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Monday met State Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar with a basket of sweets apparently as a show of gratitude for his accommodating role during the presentation of inaugural speech in the Budget Session.
The rare development immediately became news even as a smilingBanerjee was received by the Governor and his wife Sudesh. Later afteremerging from a one-hour rap session the Governor said the meeting wasextremely satisfactory.
“Had an extremely satisfying an hour long interaction with Hon’bleChief Minister Mamata Banerjee at Raj Bhavan” the Governor usuallyknown for spitting fire against the State Government on his twitterhandle wrote.
Raj Bhavan sources would not throw much light on the agenda of thetalks and said the twosome met privately for an hour and that no onewas present during that occasion. “This meeting was between the CM and the Governor and no one else was present there,” saidsources.The meeting of the two leaders just after the Budget Session assumessignificance particularly considering the fact that the State Government and the Chief Minister regularly charging him with attempts of running a parallel Govt in the State.
With no love lost between the Raj Bhavan and Nabanna (Statesecretariat) and the Governor threatening to create “history” duringhis maiden speech in the House the inaugural day of the Budget sessionwas expected to be a tumultuous one.
After giving the Government goose pimples dropping cloaked threatsthat he might deviate from the established tradition of reading outthe speech prepared by the State Government the Governor had fallen inline reading out the text prepared by the Government.
State BJP president Dilip Ghosh immediately reacted to the Monday'smeeting taking place saying “healthy relationship between the Governorand Chief Minister is a prime condition for the State’s development.Where a constitutional post like that of the Governor is ignored by ahaughty State Government the State will never improve. Happy that themeeting took place today.”
The relations between the two sides was hit by controversies eversince the Governor assumed office and more so after he ignored theadvice of the Chief Minister to personally visit the JadavpurUniversity to rescue Union Minister Babul Supriyo on September 19after he was gheraoed by the agitating students for more than fivehours. Subsequently the Governor and the Government would not see eye-to-eyeon a number of issues particularly when he was attacked by the ChiefMinister for attempting to host administrative meetings in districtsin an alleged defiance of the constitutional provisions. The mutual chemistry between the state’s two highest offices worsenedto the level of each side choosing to each other at a programme in theState Assembly.