The West Bengal Assembly on Wednesday passed a motion condemning the BJP legislators' attempt to discourage Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar from ratifying bills that were recently passed in the House.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister and Trinamool Congress (TMC) MLA Partha Chatterjee said that the BJP MLAs were "ruining" the dignity of the House.
A slew of bills was recently passed in the Assembly, which sought to replace the governor with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee as the chancellor of various state-run and aided universities.
Chatterjee pointed out that the BJP MLAs had also participated and lost in the voting held for the passage of the bills, and their "move to ask the governor to now withhold the bills was uncalled for".
"They are ruining the dignity of the Legislative Assembly. This meeting (between the Opposition MLAs and the governor) is strongly being condemned," he said.
Speaker Biman Bandyopadhyay also criticised the opposition leaders over the issue.
"You (BJP MLAs) are tarnishing the image of the Assembly. It is improper to go to your governor and ask him not to approve the bills," Bandyopadhyay said.
Earlier Events
The BJP legislators had on Tuesday met the governor at Raj Bhavan, shortly after the West Bengal University of Health Sciences Amendment Bill, 2022, which also sought to appoint the CM as the institute's chancellor in place of the governor, was passed in the House.
They submitted a memorandum to the governor, opposing the bills.
Dhankhar, following the meeting, said, "I will look into the bills very carefully. I will not hold any bias. If it is acceptable, I will sign. If not, I will talk to the government. I will not sacrifice democracy.” Last week, too, the BJP had alleged that appointing the chief minister as chancellor of varsities would lead to "direct political interference" in the state's higher education system.
Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari had said that he and the other saffron camp MLAs "would urge the governor not to ratify the bills and instead send it to the Centre as the matter falls under the concurrent list".
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