The wordy duel between West Bengal governor Jagdeep Dhankhar and Mamata Banerjee started minutes after the latter was sworn-in as the chief minister of the state for the third time on Wednesday (May 5).
After the low-key oath taking ceremony at Raj Bhawan the governor said that he hoped that everything would go in accordance with the Constitution of the country. He was commenting on the post-poll violence in the state which has taken several lives. The governor said that the violence should stop immediately.
Apparently responding to him, Mamata Banerjee, while talking to media-persons said that till now everything was in the hands of the Election Commission of India and its appointed officials.
The new chief minister went to her office and took some quick decisions which included the reinstatement of top police officials who were shifted out by the Election Commission before the poll. Virendra was brought back as the Director General of Police while Jawed Shamim was restored to his old position of ADG (Law and Order).
Meanwhile, the national president of the BJP, J P Nadda, met the family members of those party workers who were targeted allegedly by the Trinamool Congress workers. The party’s call for the nation-wide sit-in protest against the post-poll violence evoked lukewarm response even in West Bengal.
On the other hand, Mamata Banerjee took the stock of the situation arising out of the surge in number of corona virus cases in the state and ordered new measures in this regard. In the last 24 hours, the state reported 17,639 fresh cases and 107 deaths.
West Bengal watchers are of the view that though the immediate task of the government is to check the law and order situation, in the long run the bigger challenge is proper handling of the pandemic.
