Kolkata: Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, staying with her confrontational mode, refused to attend the all-party meeting called by the Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi. 

Labelling the governor, a constitutional post, to be someone who is working at the behest of the BJP, Mamata's party chose to stay away. The Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief said Tripathi had also called her to take part in the meeting, but she declined as law and order was a state subject and “not the governor’s”.

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Tripathi had convened a meeting of four major political parties in the backdrop of the post-poll violence in the state at the behest of the BJP. The governor had called the ruling TMC, the Communist Party of India (Marxist), the BJP and the Congress at the meeting on Friday (June 14) to have a discussion in creating “a harmonious situation, whereby peace and harmony prevailed for the benefit of the citizens”. This meeting was called in the backdrop of Sandeshkhali violence that saw multiple deaths in a deadly BJP-TMC clash.

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"I respect the governor but every post has its constitutional limit. Bengal is being defamed. If you want to save Bengal and its culture, come together. A plan is being hatched to turn Bengal into Gujarat. Bengal is not Gujarat," Mamata had said earlier while targeting the governor. 

(With inputs from PTI)