Mamata Banerjee on Thursday defended the legal amendment to enable a person who is not a councillor to become Calcutta mayor, ruled out any crisis in the Trinamul ranks and attacked the BJP by questioning the elevation of Narendra Modi and Amit Shah despite the presence of senior, able leaders.

During a brief discussion on the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (Second Amendment) Bill, 2018, in the Assembly on Thursday, the chief minister delivered an eight-minute address where — mainly in response to Bengal BJP president Dilip Ghosh’s jibes — she cited “personal problems” as the reason for Sovan Chatterjee’s resignation from the post of mayor.

“Let me tell you there is no crisis at all. One can always resign because of personal problems, and there are provisions. There is no misunderstanding,” the Trinamul chief told the House.

Trinamul sources said Mamata was determined not to allow the Opposition to target her in the Assembly over Sovan’s resignation as minister and mayor. As the Congress and the Left had boycotted the proceedings of the House, the BJP became the sole focus of her attack.

Referring to Ghosh’s remarks, Mamata asked: “Even in your party, M.J. Akbar resigned (as junior external affairs minister). Why?” Akbar stepped down after multiple women accused him of sexual misconduct.

The chief minister went on to question the BJP’s decision to appoint Modi as Prime Minister and Shah as the party chief. “There were so many senior, able leaders — Rajnath Singh, Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley. Why was one of them not made Prime Minister instead of Modi?” she asked, as Ghosh burst into laughter.

“There were so many capable persons in your party. Why did you have to bring Amit Shah on loan from outside and make him your party’s president?” Mamata asked.

The Trinamul chief brought up the current situation in Jammu and Kashmir.

“You are in the habit of engineering defections. That’s how you destabilised the government in Jammu and Kashmir. That’s how you came to power in Tripura,” she said. “But that strategy won’t work here. Our party is very close knit.”

During the discussion on the bill, Ghosh, the Kharagpore Sadar MLA, had asked what crisis had prompted the Bengal government to bring in the amendment and whether there were none among the 122 Trinamul councillors who could become the next mayor.

“In our party, all 122 councillors have the ability to be mayor. We are looking for someone with substantial experience and knowledge of the civic body’s functioning,” Mamata said.