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Updated: Nov 14, 2019 19:18 IST

Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday waded into the row over Maharashtra Governor’s push for central rule in the state with a swipe at the Bhagat Singh Koshyari. But he wasn’t the only one in the Trinamool Congress chief’s firing line.

Chief Minister Banerjee hasn’t been on the best of terms with West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar who had moved into Raj Bhavan in July this year. They have been sniping at each other for most of the past three-odd months. Banerjee has been particularly uncomfortable at Dhankhar seeking to hold meetings with state officials and making field visits.

So when Banerjee was asked to weigh in on the developments in Maharashtra which was placed under central rule this week, she didn’t let the opportunity pass.

“I generally do not say anything on constitutional posts. But there are some people who are behaving like BJP mouthpieces,” she told reporters at state secretariat ‘Nabanna’ in Bengal capital Kolkata, according to news agency ANI.

She continued, turning to the governor in Bengal.

“You have seen what is going on in my state. They want to run a parallel administration,” Banerjee said, underlining that the federal structure should be respected.

“As per constitutional provisions, the federal structure must work. Centre and state governments are elected governments. But, there are some people who are dominating too much… The Centre must take care of this,” she added, the news agency said.

Banerjee’s comments came against the backdrop of Maharashtra being placed under central rule on the Governor’s recommendation. Governor Koshyari had told the Centre that there was political stalemate over government formation in Maharashtra. The Shiv Sena and NCP-Congress, which were in the middle of negotiations to form an alliance, have faulted the recommendation and alleged it was designed to help the BJP.

Yesterday, Home Minister Amit Shah spoke out in defence of the governor, insisting that the governor had patiently waited for the state’s political parties to stake claim but no one came forward. He had also stressed that the three parties could go to the governor to ask him to revoke central rule at any point if they had the numbers.

Shiv Sena led by Uddhav Thackeray emerged as the second-largest party in last month’s Maharashtra assembly elections with 56 seats. The BJP was the single largest party and won 105 seats. The two parties, who fought the elections together, were at loggerheads over power-sharing.

Shiv Sena insisted that the two parties had a ‘50-50’ power-sharing agreement before the elections. Fadnavis said that Shiv Sena was not promised the chief ministerial post for two-and-a-half years when the alliance was sealed before the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.