Kolkata (West Bengal) [India], May 26 (ANI): The West Bengal Cabinet on Thursday gave its nod to introduce a bill to replace the governor with the chief minister as chancellor of all state-run universities, informed education minister Bratya Basu.

The move is seen as a fallout of the long-running battle between chief minister Mamata Banerjee and governor Jagdeep Dhankhar.

Currently, the Governor is the Chancellor of all State Universities. According to the governor's official website, Dhankar is the ex-officio chancellor of 17 universities in Bengal.

While addressing reporters, Basu said, "Today we have taken a decision that all state-run universities will have the CM - and not Governor - as the Chancellor. This will be taken to the Assembly for the Act to be amended."The move has drawn sharp criticism from the BJP.

Slamming Mamata Banerjee over the decision, BJP leader Amit Malviya on Thursday termed the move an "attack on federalism" and called it "another attempt to evade accountability and transparency".

Speaking to ANI, Malviya said, "It is one more attempt of the Mamata government to evade accountability and transparency. There are already many vice-chancellors who were appointed in the state Universities and who are undergoing hearings in the High Court. This is controversial. Such people have been appointed as VC who don't have the credentials to be on the post.""This decision of the government will give it complete hegemony over the Universities after which the government won't be mandated to answer the queries raised by the Governor," he alleged. (ANI)