Chief minister Mamata Banerjee broke her silence on the unfolding drama in Maharashtra on Tuesday and said Devendra Fadnavis did the right thing by ending his second stint as chief minister in 80 hours.

“He (Fadnavis) did the right thing by resigning,” Mamata said, in reply to a question. “Yesterday, the entire nation had witnessed how the NCP-Congress-Shiv Sena alliance paraded 162 MLAs. It was clear he (Fadnavis) did not have the majority. So, he should not have taken oath as chief minister,” she added.

Mamata had so far been silent on the developments in Maharashtra. On Tuesday, she spoke while leaving the Bengal Assembly after a Constitution Day event.

The Trinamul chief said Maharashtra governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari, who had earlier imposed President’s rule in the state, should have spoken to the “mother party” (NCP) after Ajit Pawar, the chief of the legislature party, pledged the support of all the 54 party MLAs for a BJP government in the state.

“The governor should have asked the mother party, which is supreme…. My party had extended support to the government of Atalji (Bihari Vajpayee) and also Manmohanji (Singh) at the Centre and, on both occasions, the letter of support went from the mother party,” Mamata said.

Later, explaining this point to journalists, she said that as legislative party chiefs can be removed within hours, it was wrong on the part of the governor to invite Fadnavis to take oath as chief minister on the basis of claims made by Ajit.

Sources in Trinamul said Mamata had kept track of all Maharashtra-related developments through the day, starting from the Supreme Court hearing.

The court verdict had made her happy, said a source, referring to the chief minister’s jovial mood.

“The Supreme Court has said what has to be done…. Everything will be clear in the next 24 hours,” said Mamata, who also commented on the “midnight developments” in Mumbai.

“Everyone is asking just one question, whether it was necessary? Whatever happened at 2am, 3am, 4am or 5.45am in the night and then a government was in place in the morning,” she said.

Asked if the developments in Maharashtra indicated that governors were misusing the power vested in them by the Constitution, she paused before saying: “It is being misused in my state.”

The developments in Maharashtra kept Bengal legislators engrossed through the day.

During the day’s discussion, Speaker Biman Banerjee offered the breaking news when he said: “There is news... Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis has resigned.”

Later, during her address, Mamata said: “There has been a constitutional crisis with no freedom of speech. The whole country is frightened to speak their mind. But because of the Constitution one government had to resign today. We had heard of Freedom at Midnight but now we saw a Government at Midnight. I am happy Maharashtra has shown us the way. Bengal too had shown many such bold steps in the past.”