Mamata deputes Derek O'Brien for Manipur all-party meeting

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has deputed Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha member Derek O'Brien for the all-party meeting on Manipur crisis convened by Union Home Minister Amit Shah.

The all-party meeting will be held on Saturday in New Delhi.

"I was keen to visit Manipur. I had also sought permission from the Union home ministry for that. I was informed about the all-party meeting on Manipur just after the opposition meeting at Patna was finalised. So I have deputed Derek O'Brien for the all-party meeting on Manipur," the chief minister said on Thursday before leaving for Patna to attend the grand opposition meeting convened by Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar there on Friday.

Trinamool Congress national General Secretary Abhishek Banerjee was also accompanying her for the meeting.

Speaking on the occasion, the chief minister also launched a scathing attack on West Bengal Governor C.V. Ananda Bose for the latter's refusal to accept the joining letter of the state election commissioner Rajiva Sinha and sending back the same to the state secretariat.

"The chair of the state election commissioner is a constitutional post. He can only be removed through the impeachment process," the chief minister said.

Reminding that the Governor himself cleared Sinha's name for the post of state election commissioner, the chief minister said that the Governor cannot act as per his own wish. "I have never faced such kind of things in the past," she said.