A Trinamool Congress delegation met Home Minister Amit Shah on Thursday and demanded the removal of West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankar as political battles over the horrific killings of eight people in the state’s Birbhum district echoed inside and outside parliament.
In the Lok Sabha, BJP MP Soumitra Khan rushed to Well from his seat in the last row, made angry remarks against the TMC government in the state and briefly sat on the aisle, complaining that Bengal had become a “land of terror”.
Congress member Gaurav Gogoi also condemned the state government for not allowing party leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury to visit the site of the violence at the House and for stopping him about 90 km from the scene, saying it was a blow to democracy.
Trinamool leader Sudip Bandyopadhyay has spoken of his meeting with Shah in the Lok Sabha.
The Home Minister told the delegation that there was no politics on the issue and the culprits should be severely punished, he said.
After the meeting, Banerjee told reporters that his party had demanded the removal of the governor, alleging that he was acting against constitutional norms.
“The parliamentary system is under threat from him,” he said. Dhankar has a conflicting relationship with the state government headed by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and the latest incident has seen him stand trial again.
Banerjee hit him back. Lok Sabha’s angry tirade won the sympathy of many other BJP members but Speaker Om Birla expressed his displeasure, saying the House could not go on like this. Along with exchanging harsh words between the two sides, he said the members should maintain restraint and dignity.
Eight people, including two children, were killed when about a dozen huts were set on fire in Birbhum district on Tuesday morning in the suspected killing of a ruling TMC panchayat official.
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