West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar on Thursday, 24 February, summoned the state legislative Assembly at 2 am on 7 March for a session.
Adding that the time of the meeting was "unusual and history of sorts in the making", the Governor added that the decision was made as recommended by the state Cabinet.
"Invoking article 174 (1) of Constitution, accepting Cabinet Decision, Assembly has been summoned to meet" on 7 March 2022 at 2 am, the Governor tweeted.
West Bengal Speaker Biman Banerjee reacted to the tweet, adding, "There must have been a typographical error that could have been avoided."
He told ANI that the state government had mentioned the meeting time to be 2 pm and not am. "Now it's up to the Cabinet to decide," he concluded.
“Finding the timing of session after midnight is somewhat odd, an outreach effort was made by calling Chief Secretary for urgent consultations before noon today. There was usual compliance failure. The issue was determined accepting the Cabinet's decision,” the Governor explained in another tweet.
The meeting is being called amid the ongoing tussle between the West Bengal secretariat and the Raj Bhavan, in an apparent effort to end the constitutional stalemate.
After Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had blocked the Governor on Twitter for censuring the administration on Mahatma Gandhi's death anniversary, declaring that the state of West Bengal was 'turning into a gas chamber of democracy' online, he invited her 'for talks' at the Raj Bhavan any time the following week.
Banerjee had reportedly added that Dhankar had been abusing government officials on the platform saying 'unconstitutional, unethical' things and 'instructs not advises' her administration.
(With inputs from PTI and ANI.)
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