Mamata Banerjee on Monday said she blocked governor Jagdeep Dhankhar from her Twitter account since she got “irritated” with his tweets every day.

“I’ve been forced to do something today, I apologise for it beforehand. He (Dhankhar) will tweet every day and abuse the (state government) officers, sometimes he would abuse me, he will accuse and abuse, speak unconstitutionally and unethically and give us instructions to follow his advice…Not even advice, but instructions, as if we are servants, bonded labourers,” the chief minister said at a news conference at Nabanna.

Mamata’s move means the governor’s posts will no longer show up on her Twitter feed. Later in the day, several senior Trinamul Congress leaders also blocked the governor on Twitter. “.... I was forced to block him from my Twitter account. Because every day, I was irritated by his tweets,” Mamata said.

While building a case for the removal of Dhankhar, Mamata referred to the stand-off between Dharma Vira and Ajoy Mukherjee, who were the governor and the chief minister, respectively, in the mid-1960s. Jyoti Basu, then Mukherjee’s deputy, led huge rallies against the then governor.

“You must remember that during the time of Jyoti-babu, when Dharma Vira was there, he was removed because he hadn’t cleared one or two files,” Mamata said.

The chief minister said Dhankhar was delaying signing on bills and proposals sent by the government. She alleged that the Raj Bhavan was tapping everyone’s phone.

A few hours after Mamata went after him, Dhankhar hit back at her with a series of four tweets. In the first two tweets, Dhankhar cited the Constitution to claim the chief minister was constitutionally obliged to furnish information with the governor on his call.

The last two tweets are a copy of — as claimed by Dhankhar — a WhatsApp message sent by him to Mamata. “Dialogue and harmony amongst constitutional functionaries is essence and spirit of democracy and mandate of the constitution. This can blossom with mutual regard and respect. There has been all through highest personal regard for you from my side. Am sure this will receive your thoughtful consideration. Regards,” he wrote.