Mamata cries foul over army presence near Nabanna, Eastern Command refutes charge

Mamata Banerjee, however, said it was very unfortunate that army was stationed in front of Nabanna and she would not leave the building and remain there to guard democracy. She said the move was in retaliation of her stance on the issue of demonetisation by the Narendra Modi government.

Eastern Command, meanwhile, tweeted: "Army conducting routine exercise with full knowledge & coord with WB Police. Speculation of army taking over toll plaza incorrect."

"Routine exercise in all NE states. In Assam @ 18 places, Arunanchal@13, WB@19, Manipur@6, Nagaland@5, Meghalaya@5, Tripura & Mizoram@1@adgpi," the tweet said.

Mamata Banerjee, however, tweeted: "Absolutely wrong and misleading facts by @easterncomd We have great respect for you, but please please don't mislead the people."

Besides Palsit toll plaza in Burdwan and Dankuni toll plaza in Hooghly district, few army personnel were seen in Vidyasagar Setu (Second Hooghly Bridge) toll plaza, which are very close to state's main administrative building Nabanna.

Holding a press conference here at Nabanna at around 10 pm, Mamata Banerjee said, "Creating a military coup like situation, army personnel have been stationed to several toll plazas in the state, including Vidyasagar Setu toll plaza in front of Nabanna, without informing the government."

"This is only a politics of revenge, as I'm shouting for people over demonetisation issue. As I'm the guard of the state and democracy, I will be staying at the secretariat till the Centre withdraws army," Banerjee added.

Bengal Chief Minister also alleged that army was collecting money from trucks, after checking those papers and was posting a sticker on vehicles' windscreens.

Meanwhile, denying Chief Minister's allegations, a spokesperson of Indian Army's Eastern Command told IBNS that the army personnel had been deployed for a routine survey.

"The army is conducting its annual exercise throughout the country to get statistical data about about the load carriers that could be made available to the army in case of a contingency," the spokesperson said.

Indian Army officials said that army was only marking the goods carriers and noting down those details, not charging any fee or fine.

Till the latest update came in, army's work for this day has been completed and maximum army vehicles left Vidyasagar Setu toll plaza, which is few meters away from Nabanna, while few army trucks are still standing at the area.

Mamata Banerjee and her administrative officials were still waiting at Nabanna.

(Reporting by Deepayan Sinha)