Tripathi calls meet with 4 parties on violence Partha Chatterjee of Trinamul, Dilip Ghosh of BJP, Surjya Kanta Mishra of CPM and Somen Mitra of Congress were invited

TT , 13 June 2019, Calcutta: Bengal governor Keshari Nath Tripathi has invited the Trinamul Congress, BJP, CPM and the Congress to a meeting at the Raj Bhavan on Thursday to discuss the post-poll violence in the state.
All the four parties confirmed that they would attend the meeting at 4pm.

A statement issued by the Raj Bhavan on Wednesday said the governor would hold the meeting where Partha Chatterjee of Trinamul, Dilip Ghosh of the BJP, Surjya Kanta Mishra of the CPM and Somen Mitra of the Congress were invited.

The letter signed by the governor sent to different political parties read: “In view of the recent post poll violence in the state, I feel that it will be useful to have a meeting with the major political parties for the sake of creating a harmonious situation whereby peace and harmony prevails for the benefit of the citizens in the state.”

The meeting is unprecedented as it is convened for not all parties and Tripathi has specified the names of the leaders invited.

The CPM and the BJP have communicated to the governor’s office that Mohammad Salim and Joyprakash Majumdar, respectively, would attend the meeting as Mishra and Ghosh would be away from Calcutta because of prescheduled assignments.

Trinamul’s Diamond Harbour MP Abhishek Banerjee said the party would attend the meeting. “Of Course, we will send a representative (to the meeting). There is no problem,” he said.

The Congress also confirmed Mitra’s presence at the talks.

A bureaucrat has said the governor convening the meeting is an interesting move in the backdrop of discussions on “breakdown” of law and order in Bengal. “The Union home ministry had already issued an advisory to the Bengal government which called it an infringement on the country’s federal structure as law and order is a state subject,” said the official.

According to him, against this background, the governor’s initiative for the meeting can be viewed as an attempt to discharge his duties as the Constitutional head of the state. The governor had already met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah and discussed the law and order in Bengal.

The Mamata Banerjee government has not been happy with the role of Raj Bhawan of late after Tripathi made some comments on the state’s law and order and probability of President’s rule in Bengal.

Asked whether there was any chance of President’s rule in Bengal, he said in an interview with India Today on Monday: “There might be. When the demand comes, then the central government will consider. But I did not discuss anything on President’s rule with the Prime Minister or the home minister today (Monday).”

In response, the chief minister said on Tuesday: “We respect the governor, but we don’t respect his statement”.