TMC, Congress, CPI(M) critical of Tripathi's observation

The Trinamool Congress on Saturday hit back at outgoing West Bengal Governor K N Tripathi for his comment that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee's appeasement policy had adversely affected the social harmony of the state, asking was it an "attempt to score brownie points".

The TMC along with opposition CPI-M and Congress termed the comment untimely.

Trinamool Congress Secretary General Partha Chatterjee wondered why Tripathi did not say this earlier.

The next governor, Jagdeep Dhankar will take oath on July 30.

"Wasn't it an attempt to score brownie points? That's why we (TMC) had said before that the Raj Bhavan has turned into a BJP party office. This has now been proved to be true," Chatterjee said in a sharp comment.

Tripathi had differences of opinion with Banerjee several times on various issues during his five-year tenure in the Raj Bhavan.

Chatterjee, who is also the state education and parliamentary affairs minister, said, "I don't think that the TMC government's relation with the outgoing governor during his tenure was adverse. Any way this observation by him won't glorify the chair of the governor."
"He (governor) should not have said this from the Raj Bhavan even though what he said was not entirely wrong."