The West Bengal Assembly was abruptly adjourned on Tuesday amidst allegations of the ruling Trinamul Congress that the governor was willfully withholding his assent to a number of bills as well as ridiculing the government for working at 'snail's pace' and not answering his queries on them.
The issue, which has snowballed into a major political controversy, reached even the floor of Parliament as Trinamul MPs tried to raise the issue in both the Houses. The Mamata Banerjee-led party staged a walkout in Rajya Sabha after it was not allowed to raise the issue.
In West Bengal Assembly, Trinamul MLAs, including senior ministers, staged a protest and slammed Dhankhar over the delay in clearing the bills and demanded his immediate removal.
Dhankhar, who refused to accept the charges, asserted that he will work according to the Constitution and he cannot be blamed for the delay in giving his assent to the bills.
State parliamentary affairs minister Partha Chatterjee told the House that all the queries made by the governor have been duly addressed by the government. Speaker Biman Banerjee too asserted that all of Dhankhar's queries by have been duly addressed by the Assembly.
Later in the afternoon, a Raj Bhavan statement said the governor had sent a message to the Speaker for consideration with respect to the West Bengal State Commission for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Bill, 2019, by the legislature.
The governor asked the speaker, in a letter, to inform the House about all the communication and despatches for consideration of the legislators.
'I will work as per the Constitution of the country. It is not my fault if the government moves at snail's pace in answering the queries. By blaming me they can't evade their responsibility,' Dhankhar had told reporters at Raj Bhawan.
The legislators, including the ministers, claimed that the governor was 'withholding' important bills, which needed to be tabled in the Assembly for discussion.
'Is this the way a governor functions? He is not allowing the state Assembly to run properly. Since last week, we have not been able to discuss any new bill as the governor is not giving his nod. The SC & ST Commission Bill, among other legislations, is waiting for his clearance,' Tapas Roy, the minister of state for parliamentary affairs, said.
'Despite speaking to the governor the bills didn't get the nod. We have duly addressed all his queries but nothing has moved forward,' Chatterjee, who is also the secretary-general of the Trinamul, told the House.
The winter session of the Assembly which began from November 29 was likely to continue till December 13. But it was decided to be adjourned due to lack of business as there are no bills to be discussed, Roy said.
'The governor is not giving any nod to the bills. Several important bills are being held up and we are yet to get a nod. So it was decided in the Business Advisory Committee meeting to adjourn the house for the winter session,' Roy said.
The Trinamul leaders claimed that even before the letter to the speaker had reached the Assembly it was leaked to the media by the governor.
Trinamool Congress MPs shouted slogans against Dhankhar and staged a walkout of Rajya Sabha after the party was not allowed to raise an issue drawing the ire of chairman M. Venkaiah Naidu, who said Parliament's image was 'going down' due to such conduct.
Trinamul MP Saugata Roy raised the issue in the Lok Sabha.
Meanwhile, the West Bengal government has tabled a new rule in the Assembly under which universities in the state will have the power to call meetings of their highest decision-making bodies without consulting the state's governor, their chancellor.
Dhankhar has been at loggerheads with the state government over a number of issues, since assuming charge as the governor of West Bengal.
The relation between the ruling party and the governor hit a new low after the speaker adjourned the Assembly last week for two days as bills slated to be placed in the House had not received Dhankhar's nod.
The claim was, however, refuted by the Raj Bhavan, which, in a statement, termed the situation 'factually untenable'.