Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday dismissed the official reason offered for Jagdeep Dhankhar’s resignation, asserting he was “absolutely okay” health-wise but she refused to elaborate on it and urged the media to dig deeper into the matter when asked for her take on the hot topic.

The chief minister was asked in a news conference on Tuesday evening on Dhankhar’s sudden resignation on Monday as India’s Vice-President that took the nation by surprise, prompting conspiracy theories to fly thick and fast.

Mamata was asked if it had anything to do with his taking note of an Opposition-sponsored notice for a motion to remove Justice Yashwant Varma and directing the secretary general to proceed with necessary steps, which preceded his resignation by a few hours.

Apparently displeased, she asked: “Why are you giving this that spin? What we don’t know…. Whatever they prepare and hand you, why do you run with it?”

“In this, there is some other gadbad (muddle), look for it. Why have you made such decoration of this? This is your decoration, I suppose,” added the Trinamool Congress chief, whose tense ties with Dhankhar during his contentious 2019-22 stint as Bengal governor had made national headlines, dragging the Nabanna-Raj Bhavan relations to a nadir.

“I cannot respond to this anyway, this is for our parliamentary party to respond. Our MPs are there, they can respond when they get an opportunity, when asked such questions,” added the chairperson of Trinamool’s parliamentary party.

Dhankhar, 74, had more than two years left in his term. The decision to resign came months after Dhankhar’s angioplasty at AIIMS, New Delhi.

Mamata went on. “But you came prepared with the question as well as the reply. How do you know that is what prompted (the resignation)?” she asked.

“You cannot decide for the political parties for what reason Mr. Dhankhar resigned. You cannot decorate that line,” she added.

Asked how she viewed the matter, the chief minister declined a direct comment.

“Because…. let us see the things. Let us watch,” she said.

“He is… he is a healthy man. I think his health is absolutely okay,” added Mamata, hours after speculation that Dhankhar’s resignation had more than health issues to it intensified over the absence of his farewell speech, a cryptic message by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on social media and President Droupadi Murmu's acceptance of Dhankhar's resignation.

Earlier in the news conference, in the context of the BJP-led Assam government’s harassment of Indian citizens from Bengal, Mamata advised the saffron camp to first set its own house in order.

“They are now crossing all limits. I want to tell the so-called double-engine BJP to first set their own house in order before interfering in ours… douse the flames in your own home...,” she said.

“Sort your own house… no need to target Bengal,” Mamata added.