West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee (L) and Governor C V Ananda Bose (R).
Credit: PTI Photos
Kolkata: With the Kolkata Police continuing its probe into the allegation of molestation against West Bengal Governor C V Ananda Bose, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday demanded his resignation and said that she would not visit the Raj Bhavan as long as he would remain the constitutional head of the state.
Banerjee, who was addressing an election rally in Hooghly on Saturday, said that it would be tantamount to committing a sin if she sat beside Bose.
She and her party, Trinamool Congress (TMC), have been criticising the Governor ever since a female contractual employee of the Raj Bhavan in Kolkata went to a police station and accused him of inappropriately behaving with her.
The Governor, however, dismissed the allegation as an election ploy by a political party.
Banerjee raised the pitch of the TMC’s campaign against Bose on Saturday – a day after Kolkata Police claimed to have obtained some CCTV footage from the Raj Bhavan, with sources saying that the recordings had corroborated the sequence of events that the woman had narrated to the cops while registering the complaint against the Governor on May 2.
The CM said that Bose must explain why he should not resign after such allegations were leveled against him.
“Who do you think you are? Why should you torture the woman,” the Chief Minister said while campaigning for the TMC candidate Rachana Banerjee in Hooghly.
“The Governor says ‘didigiri’ (high-handedness by a woman) will not be tolerated...But I say Mr Governor, your ‘dadagiri’ (high-handedness by a man) will not work anymore,” Banerjee added.
Bose had several run-ins with the government led by Banerjee, including over the appointment of the vice-chancellors of the state universities and the recent allegation of atrocities on women in Sandeshkhali in North 24 Parganas district of the state by a local TMC leader and his aides.
The TMC has often accused the Governor of acting at the behest of the BJP.
“The Governor had released an edited video. I saw the entire footage and its contents are shocking. The truth is yet to come out. I have got another video... Your (Governor) conduct is shameful,” the Chief Minister said.
“I am not going to the Raj Bhavan till he is the Governor... I prefer to meet him on the streets.”
Article 361 (2) and (3) of the Constitution give constitutional immunity to the President of India and the Governor of any state from any criminal proceeding being instituted or continued against them.
The Kolkata Police, however, stated that it had launched a probe after receiving the complaint from the woman, but its inquiry was not targeted at any individual.
The Governor has barred the entry of police personnel into the Raj Bhavan and ordered an order about the same on May 2. He asked the employees of the Raj Bhavan not to cooperate with the police and not to share any CCTV recordings.
But he, himself, later decided to show the footage to some citizens of West Bengal, but not to the state police and the Chief Minister.
The video shown by the Raj Bhavan has the woman contractual employee rushing towards the police outpost.
Bose had earlier accused Banerjee of practicing “dirty politics”.
The CCTV footage obtained by police from the Public Works Department’s unit in the Raj Bhavan in Kolkata purportedly shows the woman complainant coming out of the Raj Bhavan Special Secretary’s office, where a doctor was also present.