Chief Minister of West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee
| Photo Credit:
Manvender Vashist Lav
While senior BJP leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, have alleged that the Banerjee-led State government disrespected the President, the Trinamool Congress supremo accused the saffron party, the main Opposition in Bengal, of misusing the country’s highest post for political objectives.
The war of words erupted after the President said on Saturday that neither the Chief Minister nor other ministers of the State government were there to receive her during her visit to Darjeeling district in North Bengal for the 9th International Santal Conference.
Speaking at the programme, Murmu said the venue was shifted by the administration, and many Santals were stopped from attending. The programme was initially supposed to be held in a field in Bidhannagar, but the administration shifted the venue to Gosainpur in Siliguri.
“I can see from here that many Santals are moving away. I think someone is stopping them… People don’t want Santals to be united, Santals to be educated, Santals to be strengthened. However, Santhals sacrificed their lives for the nation,” she said.
Later, the President went to the venue where the meeting was originally supposed to happen and highlighted the contradiction in the authorities’ claim, saying, “When I came here I found the field was big enough to accommodate around five lakh people”. Murmu said she was very sad over the last minute change in the venue.
Launched a sharp attack on the ruling Trinamool Congress in Bengal, the Prime Minister called the episode “shameful and unprecedented”.
“The pain and anguish expressed by Rashtrapati Ji, who herself hails from a tribal community, has caused immense sadness in the minds of the people of India. The TMC Government of West Bengal has truly crossed all limits. Their administration is responsible for this insult to the President,” Modi said on social media platform X.
On Sunday, he sharpened the attack on Mamata Banerjee and the Trinamool Congress over the alleged mismanagement of the event. The Prime Minister also warned that the Trinamool Congress’ “arrogance of power” would soon be “shattered”.
Responding to the allegations against her government and the party, the Chief Minister said the President came for a private event and the West Bengal government was not involved in it.
“There was no breach of protocol at the President’s programme in Bengal. The responsibility of mismanagement at the programme lies with private organisers, and the place is under the Airport Authority of India. We have full respect for the chair of the President and the Constitution of India. Do not blame us,” Banerjee said.
“You are saying I have humiliated the President. How can I go there? I am sitting at a dharna and fighting for the people of West Benal,” she said, referring to her ongoing protest over the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral roll.
Her sit-in protest against alleged arbitrary “mass deletion” of voters from the post-SIR electoral roll in the State entered its third day on Sunday.
Published on March 8, 2026