Mamata Banerjee said Prime Minister Narendra Modi had been more courteous towards her than governor Jagdeep Dhankhar who apparently did not wish the chief minister who was waiting to receive him when he entered the Bengal Assembly on Tuesday.

The governor, who addressed a special session of the Assembly to observe the 70th Constitution Day, said the position of the “constitutional head of the state has been seriously compromised”.

In her speech, the chief minister said: “The Prime Minister hasn’t ever behaved with me like this…. Whenever we meet, he speaks to me.”

She was referring to the apparent snub by Dhankhar when he reached the House. Mamata, along with her cabinet colleagues and Speaker Biman Banerjee, was waiting near the statue of B.R. Ambedkar to receive the governor who reached around 5.35pm.

Photographs suggested Dhankhar walked past the chief minister without looking at her and later started conversing with Opposition leaders like Abdul Mannan of the Congress and Sujan Chakraborty of the CPM.

When he left the Assembly, Mamata followed Dhankhar, but he did not reciprocate the gesture and left the Assembly in 25 minutes.

The speakers in the Assembly included former Bengal governor M.K. Narayanan and former Lok Sabha speaker Meira Kumar.

Although other dignitaries dwelt on the Constitution, the discourse took a different turn when Dhankhar spoke.

In his less than 20-minute address, Dhankhar heaped praise on the Narendra Modi government for the abrogation of Article 370 and taking an initiative to observe the 70th year of the adoption of the Constitution.

His speech prompted some Trinamul Congress MLAs to express their dissatisfaction, but Mamata promptly gestured at her colleagues, resulting in pin-drop silence on the treasury benches.

While wrapping up his speech, the governor broached the relationship between the state government and the Raj Bhavan and took a dig at the Trinamul dispensation.

“Honourable Members, I am constrained with utmost reluctance to indicate to all of you that on this momentous day of the commemoration of the Constitution Day, the position of the constitutional head of the state has been seriously compromised. The sequence of events that have taken place bear it out. Such an outrage is unprecedented,” Dhankhar said.

After Dhankhar became the governor, he has repeatedly made negative statements on the state administration.

Immediately after Dhankhar, Mamata rose to speak. Although the chief minister started the address by thanking everyone, including Dhankhar, for taking part in the programme, she used the occasion to express her hurt with the governor’s behaviour.

“All the speakers who spoke here did not give any politically motivated speech barring one. The post of governor is a nominated one. I know who sent him and why he was sent. I have worked with other governors but I had never had differences with anybody. Why should this happen? This is not good for democracy,” said Mamata.

The chief minister also wondered whether the governor did the right thing by speaking about the abrogation of Article 370 in the Assembly. “He perhaps forgot that this is Bengal, not Kashmir. I can also say about abrogation of Article 370, but it is not the proper forum. But I will always raise questions why Farooq Abdullah’s freedom of speech was curbed for three months.”

Mamata then spoke on the issues raised by the governor earlier to blame the state government and clarified why a helicopter could not be provided to Dhankhar for visiting Murshidabad.

“The Central team was using the helicopter (to visit areas hit by Cyclone Bulbul). The helicopters are for public use. Only during emergencies, we are allowed to use it as we give a certain amount of subsidy to run the helicopter service in the state,” the chief minister said.

Mamata also referred to another pet peeve of the governor, who often accuses the chief minister of not responding to “multiple letters” written by him. “I attend programmes at Raj Bhavan… I have also replied thrice to his invitation to attend a programme at Raj Bhavan. What more can I do?” she asked before wondering the motive behind his tweets on the issue.

The Congress and the Left Front boycotted the second half of the special session when both the chief minister and the governor addressed the House. The Opposition parties said enough time had not been allotted for them during the programme.