Ruling dispensations in states where the writ of non-BJP parties run have often been at loggerheads with the governor. If a recent tweet of Tamil Nadu chief minister, MK Stalin about a call from his West Bengal counterpart, Mamata Banerjee about the undemocratic functioning of governors in non-BJP ruled states is anything to go by, the stage is being set to make gubernatorial intervention an election issue in 2024 Lok Sabha polls. Stalin’s tweet stated that Banerjee rang him up “to express her solidarity and admiration about our initiatives about undemocratic functioning of governors in non-BJP ruled states and suggested that all the Opposition parties meet to decide on the next course of action.” A meeting of the chief ministers of states ruled by parties opposed to BJP has usually been convened to chalk out plans to end the continuance of the saffron dispensation at the Centre. With the functioning of the governors in non-BJP party-ruled states scheduled to come up in the agenda of the next Opposition parties’ conclave, to all intents it becomes a live ammunition in the coming election campaign.
Similar charges are hurled at the principal occupant of Raj Bhavan by the dispensation of several states where the BJP is in the Opposition benches of the state Assembly. Things had come to such a pass in Tamil Nadu that the governor was referred to as the “shadow chief ” of the state BJP unit. Interference and non-cooperation in the state government’s functioning, giving precedence to instructions of the Centre even at the cost of overlooking the interests of the state government are some of these much-hurled allegations. Banerjee’s phone call and Stalin’s tweet assume significance in this backdrop. Notably, West Bengal has a long history of face-offs between the state government and the governor. Be it the United Front dispensation or decades thereafter Left Front government, a war of words continued unabated. Many expected Mamata Banerjee to take up the reins of the state in 2011 would mark the beginning of the end of the hostilities between the CM and the governor. But if the run-ins between the two peaked during the tenure of Jagdeep Dhankhar as the governor, the troubles continued to erupt off and on between the constitutional and elected heads of the state even after CV Anand Bose assumed office.
Given the electoral successes of the BJP in the 2014 and 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the Opposition is loath to ignore an issue that can enhance its fizz in next year’s election campaign. Against this backdrop, the issue of “pro-active” governors will only add to its readymade campaign fodder especially if the state regime subscribed to an ideology that is an anathema to the saffron camp. A letter from Kerala chief minister and CPI(M) leader Pinarayi Vijayan to Stalin is a pointer to it. In it, the Kerala chief minister has asked about the extent of the authority of the governor’s office and whether it can be implemented overriding that of the Assembly. The role of the governor especially in the states ruled by non-BJP parties has often been under the scanner. Now it seems the gubernatorial acts are leading to diminishing ideological differences and increasing proximity between Opposition outfits in the 2024 parliamentary polls.
