Cong claims Oppn status in Bengal assembly

Will Congress replace CPM leader Dr Surjya Kanta Mishra as Leader of Opposition in the West Bengal assembly? The question has put the assembly speaker in the dilemma. House speaker Biman Bandopadhyay said, “I would follow the set-up rules of the House, which is been followed till date.”

Congress Legislative Party (CLP) on Monday requested speaker Bandopadhyay to acknowledge them as main opposition. Congress has 42 MLAs while CPM has 39. Interestingly, the CLP was led by deputy chief Rabindranath Chatterjee instead of CLP chief Md. Sohrab. Reportedly, Congress legislative party is divided on this issue as Left Front enjoys the status of main Opposition, not the CPM.

And, that’s the main problem for the speaker to accept Congress as the main opposition in the House. At the beginning of the new House, the speaker has accepted 61-member group Left Front as main opposition and gave Dr Mishra the status of Leader of Opposition. House speaker also accorded deputy leader status to RSP, chief whip state to CPM and whip status to Forward Bloc. Now, if he is to alter the decision, he has to negate his ruling.

Chief Whip of opposition Abdur Rezzak Mollah said that state has long accepted Left Front as a united group which is contesting election under one manifesto. “This time also, we presented ourselves as a united group, Left Front, to state Governor and the Speaker also accepted it. This is the set norms.”

West Bengal has no precedence when a ruling party claimed the status of main opposition just after quitting ruling alliance. Now the speaker has to abide by tradition or set a new rule. Reportedly, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is interested in seeing a particular Congress leader, who resigned from the cabinet post on September 21, as Leader of Opposition. Humorously, the Left Front MLAs have started taunting him as ‘Her Majesty’s Opposition’.

On September 22, Six Congress ministers handed over their resignations to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee after TMC withdrew its ministers from the UPA II protesting economic reforms by the Centre.

Congress’ withdrawal of support in West Bengal will not affect the Mamata Banerjee-led government as Trinamool Congress has 185 MLAs in the 294-member assembly.

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