Bengal Guv criticizes Mamata Banerjee's statement on army exercise

"Every person should take care in making allegations against a responsible organization like Indian Army. Don't let down the army," Tripathi told the media.

Meanwhile, protesting Tripathi's reaction on the issue, Mamata Banerjee tweeted: "Governor is speaking in the voice of Central Government!! He was not in the city for about 8 days."

"Before making statements, all details should have been checked. It is very unfortunate," Banerjee further tweeted.

Earlier on Thursday, 'unarmed' troops were deployed at several toll plazas, including Vidyasagar Setu toll plaza in front of state secretariat Nabanno in Kolkata, in the state to conduct its annual exercise to get statistical data about about the load carriers that could be made available to the army in case of a contingency.

Alleging that the army was deployed in the state without Bengal government's consent and the Central government had sent army for a military coup, Chief Minister stayed in the secretariat overnight to 'guard' the state and democracy.

However, the Eastern Command of Indian Army on Friday denied all allegations, made by Trinamool supremo and stated that it was only an annual exercise of army, nothing else.

Meanwhile, a TMC delegation, led by party's Secretary General Partha Chatterjee, met state governor Keshari Nath Tripathi here in Kolkata's Raj Bhaban (Governor's Palace) on Saturday and put forward a memorandum to him, describing the alleged army deployment.

(Reporting by Deepayan Sinha)