Amid rukus Governor leaves Bengal assembly without ending speech

Chaos erupted in the Bengal Assembly on Friday afternoon as governor Jagdeep Dhankhar began his speech - the opening address of the new Bengal Assembly session. Opposition BJP MLAs held up placards and shouted protests ostensibly over post-poll violence, but sources said this was part of their strategy - to ensure the governor would not have to read his whole speech. Dhankhar was forced to stop less than 10 minutes into his address and was escorted to his vehicle by Speaker Biman Banerjee.

Leader of Opposition in the Bengal Assembly Suvendu Adhikari said, "We have won 77 seats.. We protested amidst the speech of the Governor because the speech which was written by State Government does not mention anything on post-poll violence. We respect the Governor, he protested on post-poll violence. We respect his stand. But the speech that was written was by the cabinet of Mamata, Governor had no say in his speech. We protested with the images of our dead workers.The speech that Dhankhar read out mentioned, "All incidents of violence happened when law and order were under ECI. After the new government was elected, normalcy was restored." BJP protested this and stated that it was written by the state government and not the Governor, and it doesn't mention anything about post-poll violence.

That feud extended to the contents of  Dhankhar's speech.Trinamool leaders feared he would deviate from the draft sent to him by the state government to launch yet another attack. Such a deviation, it was suggested, could invite protests from the ruling party. BJP leaders, meanwhile, were expecting just such an eventuality - they expected Mr Dhankhar to continue his attacks on Ms Banerjee and the law and order situation in the state.