Hindustan Times (Ranchi)

BJP’S SUVENDU ADHIKARI ELECTED BENGAL LOP

- Press Trust of India letters@hindustant­imes.com

KOLKATA: The BJP on Monday unanimousl­y elected Suvendu Adhikari as Leader of Opposition in the new West Bengal assembly to take on Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in the House.

Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad announced Adhikari’s name as leader of the BJP legislatur­e party in the assembly after a meeting of the legislator­s at the party’s Hastings office.

The saffron party has emerged as the main opposition party winning 77 seats in the 294-member house.

Adhikari has been preferred by the BJP ahead of senior party leaders like Mukul Roy, who also got elected from Nadia constituen­cy, to take on Banerjee in the house.

The 22 MLAs present at the meeting pledged support to Adhikari.

KOLKATA: The BJP on Monday unanimousl­y elected Suvendu Adhikari as Leader of Opposition in the new West Bengal Assembly to take on Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in the house.

Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad announced Adhikari’s name as leader of the BJP legislatur­e party in the assembly after a meeting of the legislator­s at the party’s Hastings office.

The saffron party has emerged as the main opposition party winning 77 seats in the 294-member house.

Adhikari has been preferred by the saffron party ahead of senior party leaders like Mukul Roy, who also got elected from Nadia constituen­cy, to take on Banerjee in the house.

The ruling TMC bagged 213 seats while Indian Secular Front emerged victorious in one assembly segment and an Independen­t R S Lepcha, belonging to the Binay Tamang faction of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) won from Kalimpong.

Congress and the Left party drew a blank.

While 22 MLAs present at the meeting pledged support to Adhikari, those absent were either on the side of the workers facing TMC attack in the districts while two are down with Covid-19, state party chief Dilip Ghosh said when asked about the reason why not all the MLAs were present at the meeting.

Adhikari said “I have been MLA since 2006. I have seen arrogance of the then CPI(M) led regime. We have to constructi­vely perform the role of opposition in the assembly adhering to parliament­ary norms.”

 ??  ?? Suvendu Adhikari
Suvendu Adhikari

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