Not accountable to Home Minister: TMC

Kalyan Banerjee, TMC Chief Whip in LS

“The Centre is resorting to coercive means to intimidate the state administration”

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Kailash Vijayvargiya, BJP general secy

“Everyone saw what happened on December 10.There is little merit in Banerjee’s letter”

Kolkata, December 12

Senior Trinamool Congress lawmaker Kalyan Banerjee wrote to Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla on Saturday, saying that West Bengal’s Chief Secretary and DGP were summoned to Delhi over the attack on BJP chief JP Nadda’s convoy with a “political motive,” asserting that law and order was a state subject.

Banerjee, the chief whip of the TMC in the Lok Sabha, alleged that the Centre was resorting to coercive means to intimidate the state administration and that the top officials were summoned at the instance of the Union Home Minister.

BJP national general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya, however, said that everyone saw how Nadda’s convoy was attacked by alleged TMC workers on December 10 and Banerjee’s letter to Bhalla had “little merit”.

“We want to inform you that law and order is within the domain of the state under 7th Schedule of the State list…. How in respect of the law and order situation can you call both the officers for any sorts of discussion?” the TMC MP wrote. “You are trying to coerce the officers of West Bengal with political vindictiveness. It appears you are interfering with the federal structure,” he added.

The MHA had on Friday summoned Chief Secretary Alapan Bandopadhyay and DGP Virendra asking them to present themselves on December 14 for an explanation on the law and order situation in the state, following Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar’s report on the attack on Nadda’s convoy by alleged supporters of the ruling TMC in South 24 Parganas district on December 10. PTI