West Bengal Guv to be replaced by CM Mamata Banerjee as Chancellor of state universities

After a cabinet meeting in West Bengal, Bratyabrata Basu, the Minister of Education of the state made a massive announcement on Thursday. Addressing a media briefing, Basu announced that the state cabinet in the meeting gave its consent to the proposal to replace West Bengal Governor Jadgeep Dhankhar with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee as the Chancellor of all state universities.  

'It's unconstitutional,' says Guv on CM replacing him as Uni Chancellor

"Today, the state cabinet gave its consent to the proposal to make the Chief Minister the chancellor of all state-run universities in place of the Governor. This proposal will soon be introduced as a bill in the assembly." the Minister said, to the reporters just a few days after he had informed of friction between Dhankhar and the government. The recent point of friction was over appointments of vice-chancellors across universities. Governor Dhankhar had earlier alleged that the state government had appointed several Vice-Chancellors without Raj Bhavan's consent.

When Republic Media Network got in touch with Dhankhar, the Governor unaware of the development, said, "I don't know, I am not intimated....but if something of this sort has been decided, it is unconstitutional." 

'Tanashai of the government'

Meanwhile, Bharatiya Janata Party' which is the main opposition in the state called the move of the government unprecedented. The saffron party's Shishir Bajoria said, "West Bengal government and honourable Chief Minister have to keep in mind that it is one of the states of the Republic of India and is governed by the Indian Constitution. Anyone's whims and fancies do not work. She may not like a particular individual who points out fault, and basically, the Tanashahi they do in the state...but at the end of the day, they have to fall in line with the constitution. The chancellor of the universities is the governor of the state, and that cannot be changed. "