Days after the Centre recalled West Bengal Chief Secretary Alapan Bandyopadhyay to Delhi, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has now written to Narendra Modi urging him to reconsider and revoke the order. Earlier on Saturday, she had remarked that she was even ready to touch the feet of the Prime Minister over the same.
"West Bengal Govt can't release and is not releasing its Chief Secretary at this critical hour," read an excerpt from the letter she wrote to the PM. News agency ANI reported that the Chief Minister had requested Modi to withdraw, recall, reconsider the decision and rescind latest so-called order.
Bandyopadhyay had been recalled last week, hours after a meeting between the two leaders ended on a seemingly sour note. He has been asked to join the Department of Personnel and Training under the Government of India by May 31 - an order that was passed even as countless Union Ministers and BJP leaders took to Twitter lambasting Mamata Banerjee.
Modi had visited Odisha and West Bengal states to review the situation and damages caused by 'Cyclone Yaas'. Banerjee had had a brief meeting with the Prime Minister at the Kalaikunda airbase where she handed over a memorandum on the post-cyclone situation. BJP leaders later accused her of cutting short the planned review meeting.
In the letter, Banerjee also brought up the presence of former ally turned BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari at the meeting. "I wanted a quiet word with you, a meeting between PM and CM as usual. You however included a local MLA from your party (who) had no locus to be present at a PM-CM meeting," she reported added.
Further details awaited.