West Bengal: BJP meets Governor over ‘unconstitutional’ KMC board

BJP national Secretary Rahul Sinha. (File)

The BJP has decided to move the Calcutta High Court challenging the Mamata Banerjee government’s decision to form a board of administrators with Kolkata Mayor and Urban Development Minister Firhad Hakim as its chairman to run the civic body. A BJP team, led by its Medinipur MP and state party president Dilip Ghosh and national secretary Rahul Sinha, met Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar at Raj Bhavan Friday, and sought his intervention in this regard.

Speaking to The Indian Express, Sinha said, “The state government has formed a board of administrators to run the Kolkata Municipal Corporation, which is unconstitutional. Moreover, it did not take the consent of the Governor who is the constitutional head of the state. Through this move, the state government ensured that Hakim continued to be the head of the civic body even after his tenure as KMC mayor ended. We have sought the Governor’s intervention into this matter. We have decided to move the court to challenge the state government’s move.”

On Thursday, Dhankhar had sought information from the state government over its notification to nominate a board of administrators, led by Mayor Firhad Hakim, to run the Kolkata Municipal Corporation. A petition was also filed in the Calcutta High Court against the notification.

The Governor on Thursday invoked Article 167 of the Constitution to draw the attention of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee over Wednesday’s notification.

The Governor’s move came a day after the state government appointed a 14-member board of administrators, with Hakim as the chairman, to run KMC.