Governor to visit Mamata's residence for Kali puja

Amid constant run-ins between West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar and her government, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has invited Dhankhar and his wife for the over 40-year old Kali puja at her residence on Sunday. The Governor has accepted the invitation.

Dhankhar said on Saturday that he had written to the Chief Minister a few days back that he wanted to go to her house on October 29 on the occasion of 'Bhai Phonta' or 'Bhai Dooj'.

"She was then touring North Bengal. Me and my wife requested her to give us a time of her convenience as we wanted to go to her residence on October 29. She wrote to me after coming back from North Bengal, inviting us to her residence on October 27 for Kali puja. We are very happy to be going to her residence tomorrow (Sunday)," Dhankhar told mediapersons here.

The Kali puja at Banerjee's residence in south Kolkata's Kalighat is being held since 1978.

The Raj Bhavan said Banerjee in her letter also indicated that for the last 30 years, on the occasion of Bhai Phonta, she has been affirmatively preoccupied with strengthening communal harmony.

"The essence of the Indian Constitution lies in communal harmony and the issue is also very close to the Governor's heart. In the nation, all of us need to work both for harmony and communal harmony," the Raj Bhavan said in a media release.

The Governor would interact on this issue with the Chief Minister.

Only days before, Dhankhar had expressed "pain and concern" over the cancellation of two meetings he had proposed to hold in the Sundarbans as the district magistrates of North and South 24 Parganas districts refused to send out invites.

The Governor had then urged academic, politic and activists to "reflect on worrisome governance issues" that he noticed during his visit.

On September 24, Dhankhar had gone to Siliguri on his first visit outside Kolkata after taking over as the Governor. But senior government functionaries skipped the administrative meeting called by him.

Earlier this month, Dhankhar had alleged that he was "totally blacked out" during the October 11 Durga carnival in Kolkata hosted by the state administration, calling it "an unusual kind of censorship reminiscent of Emergency".

The first stand-off between the Governor and the state government happened over Dhankhar's visit to Jadavpur University to "rescue" BJP MP Babul Supriyo, which the Trinamool called "most unfortunate" and "shocking".

( With inputs from IANS )