Bengal Governor leaves for New Delhi for meeting with Amit Shah tomorrow

Kolkata, 5 March (HS): West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankar is leaving for New Delhi this evening to meet Union Home Minister Amit Shah there tomorrow to apprise him of the ‘ground reality’ in the state and his experience since taking over the office about seven months ago.

“During my meeting with him tomorrow I shall give the Union Home Minister an overview of my experience and shall convey my thoughts to him about the happenings in Bengal since I took over the office in July last year’, the Governor said here this afternoon before his departure for the capital.  ‘It is also my constitutional obligation for the people of Bengal’,he added.

However, a little earlier the Governor in a message through his twitter handle said ‘First meeting between me as Governor and Union Home Minister Amit Shah, since I  assumed office seven months ago, is scheduled at New Delhi on March 06. The meeting is taking place at my request. I would seek to avail the opportunity in the best interest of people of West Bengal.;

Meanwhile, the sudden decision of Governor Dhankar to seek an appointment with the Union Home minister prior to the Kolkata Corporation and other Civic body elections in the state, slated for next month, has raised several questions among the political observers here about the real purpose of such a high profile meeting when the relations between him and the state government was not a bed of roses so far.

Though there was no direct confrontation between the office of the Governor and the state Secretariat so far, huge differences between them surfaced a number of times including on the issues of higher education at Jadavpur University and the non-availability of government helicopter to him for an official trip to Malda, causing huge embarrassment to the state government.