A controversy over the installation of a statue of Cooch Behar’s last Maharaja, Jagaddipendra Narayan Bhup Bahadur, was defused on Saturday following chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s intervention.

The dispute, which erupted on Friday, involved two senior Trinamool leaders — Udayan Guha, the north Bengal development minister, and Rabindranath Ghosh, the Cooch Behar municipality chairperson — over the location of a seven-foot-two-inch statue of an erstwhile royal figure in front of the north Bengal development department office in Cooch Behar.

The situation escalated after minister Guha reportedly halted the installation work by civic workers and asked them to vacate the site.

This decision triggered sharp reactions from Ghosh as well as from several Rajbanshi outfits who believed it was disrespectful to the royal legacy.

The statue was supposed to honour the legacy of Maharaja Jagaddipendra Narayan Bhup Bahadur, the last ruling monarch of Cooch Behar, and acknowledge the cultural and historical sentiments of the Rajbanshi community.

Supporters of Ghosh arrived at the proposed site near Sagardighi in the heart of Cooch Behar, where they put up a banner bearing the Maharaja’s image and marked the ground with a declaration: “The statue will be installed here.”

On Saturday, Mamata intervened to end the stand-off between her two senior party colleagues in Cooch Behar.

Guha said: “The chief inister called me today (Saturday) and advised that the statue be installed in front of the NBDD office in a dignified manner. She suggested we build a garden around it and install a fence so that people can pay their respects properly.”

Mamata instructed the minister to coordinate with the civic body chairman to ensure smooth execution.

Ghosh, showing his support for the statue, said it would now be installed at the location identified by the chief minister. “The statue, made by a sculptor from Nadia, cost ₹2 lakh,” Ghosh said.