Outgoing West Bengal Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi on Sunday said his remarks about Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s “appeasement policy” were misrepresented, reported ANI. “I had praised also, why is that part being ignored?” he asked.

“Don’t create unnecessary controversy,” he said, according to India Today. “My message to Bengal is...be peaceful, maintain law and order and let Bengal prosper...I have already appealed earlier.”

This came a day after Tripathi said Chief Minister Banerjee had the vision and ability to implement decisions but her policies of appeasement were adversely affecting social harmony in the state. “She becomes sentimental on occasions, so she has to keep a control on it,” he had added.

Tripathi and Banejee have often been at loggerheads in the past five years. Banerjee has time and again accused the governor of being partisan and working at the behest of the Bharatiya Janata Party. Jagdeep Dhankar will succeed Tripathi as West Bengal governor. He will take oath on July 30.

Asked about his experience as the state’s constitutional head, Tripathi said it was both sweet and sour. “My experience as the governor of West Bengal is sweet and sour, with more on the sweeter side,” he told PTI. “Sour in the sense that sometimes what was happening in West Bengal was not to my liking.”

Tripathi, however, said there was ample room for the state to improve. “I think things can be improved here, when it comes to law and order, in educational matters, in maintaining autonomy of universities, upgrading the status of primary and middle-level education and bringing about industrial growth,” he added.

Political violence in West Bengal continued even after the Lok Sabha elections. On June 13, Tripathi chaired a meeting of all parties to discuss the increasing violence. The meeting was convened three days after the governor met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah in New Delhi to apprise them of the situation in the state. Mamata Banerjee criticised the governor then, saying “every post has its constitutional limit”. She had earlier accused the governor of siding with the BJP.