‘Subjected to pressure’: Mamata Banerjee questions West Bengal governor change ahead of Assembly polls

Mamata Banerjee on Thursday expressed shock over the resignation of C. V. Ananda Bose as West Bengal governor, saying she would not be surprised if pressure had been exerted by Union Home Minister Amit Shah ahead of the state’s Assembly elections.

Reacting to the development, Banerjee said she was unaware of the reasons behind Bose’s resignation but suggested the move could be linked to political interests.

“I am shocked and deeply concerned by the sudden news of the resignation of Shri C V Ananda Bose, the Governor of West Bengal,” she said, adding that given the prevailing circumstances she would not be surprised if the governor had been subjected to pressure from the Union home minister “to serve certain political interests on the eve of the forthcoming State Assembly elections”.

Banerjee also said that Shah “just informed” her about the decision and that she had not been consulted, calling it a departure from established convention.

She said such actions undermine the spirit of the Constitution and strike at the foundation of India’s federal structure, adding that the Centre must respect the principles of cooperative federalism and refrain from unilateral decisions that erode democratic conventions and the dignity of states.

Governor reshuffle

The reaction came after Droupadi Murmu on Thursday evening carried out a reshuffle across several regions, appointing former diplomat Taranjit Singh Sandhu as the new lieutenant governor of Delhi and shifting R. N. Ravi from Tamil Nadu to West Bengal.

Ravi will replace Bose, whose resignation has been accepted by the President, according to a communiqué issued by her office.

The former Tamil Nadu governor moves to West Bengal just weeks before the state’s Assembly elections, with the current Assembly’s term set to expire on May 7. During his tenure in Tamil Nadu, Ravi repeatedly clashed with the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam government and faced criticism for allegedly sitting on bills, refusing to read from the text prepared by the state government during Assembly sessions, and being involved in several controversies.

Changes in other states

In other changes, Delhi Lieutenant Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena was appointed lieutenant governor of Ladakh, while Ladakh’s current LG Kavinder Gupta was shifted to Himachal Pradesh.

Sandhu, a former Indian ambassador to the United States, joined the Bharatiya Janata Party and contested the 2024 Lok Sabha elections from Amritsar as the party’s candidate. His appointment in the national capital comes a year after the BJP won the Delhi Assembly polls.