KOLKATA 21 May: Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s plan to revive Vidhan Parishad in Bengal may face hurdle due to the strained the relationship she shares with the BJP government in the Centre.
Political observers and constitutional experts are skeptical about the the success of chief minister Mamata Banerjee move to revive Vidhan Parishad as they say that the final approval for the move has to be taken from the President of India, which at the present scenario seems to be difficult.
Biswanath Chakraborty, senior political analysts, said, “As the Bill for the Vidhan Parishad needs approval from the President of India. TMC government may likely have to face several hurdles before it is approved. Even chances are there that the proposal may be canceled due to the strained relationship she shared with the BJP-led government at the Center.”
In keeping with the poll promises at a meeting of the last cabinet the state cabinet passed a resolution for the revival of Vidhan Parishad.
According to Article 169 of the Constitution, the state Assembly has to pass a bill for the creation of Vidhan Parishad and the President’s consent is also mandatory.
Incidentally, the BJP government has not cleared the proposal for renaming the state as Bangla, which the state government passed in the year 2019.
Political observers say that the proposal for the Vidhan Parishad will be sent first to the Union Home Ministry and if Union Home Ministry clears the proposal, then it will be sent to the President for assent.
But the present BJP government and the Union Home Ministry under Amit Shah is likely not to give their consent to the proposal because of the strained relationship that Mamata shares with Center.
In her first term in 2011, she tried to revive Vidhan Parishad, and she called an all-party meeting, and after that, this did not proceed further, as the proposal faced stiff opposition from the Left.
Sources in the state government said that Mamata has plans to rehabilitate people like Purnendu Basu, Amit Mitra, who have not given tickets. While Mitra has given the portfolio of finance, Basu is looking after the party’s organisation.
Speculations are also brewing that Sovandeb Chattopadhyay, who has resigned from the Bhowanipore seat may also be accommodated in the Upper House or he may be given another seat to contest in the by -election, which was lying vacant.
Only six states Karnataka, Telangana, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, and Maharashtra – possess the Vidhan Parishads.
On Friday, minister of agriculture and TMC veteran Sovandeb Chattopadhyay resigned from Bhowanipore constituency to facilitate, according to sources, chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s candidature from there.
Interestingly, it was Bhowanipore that Mamata contested both in 2011 and 2016 elections and won with a significant margin.
According to the rules, a leader who is selected for a chief minister or a minister post without winning or contesting elections needs to be elected to legislative Assembly within six months of taking oath in office.
Chattopadhyay tendered his resignation to West Bengal Assembly speaker Biman Bandhyopadyay on Friday noon.
Sources in the TMC said that Chattopadhyay would retain his cabinet portfolio.
On 19 January, Banerjee, while addressing an election rally in Nandigram announced that she would contest from that seat.
Calling Bhowanipore her “older sister” and Nandigram “younger,” she had said she would try to contest from both, but her priority would be Nandigram. She then left Bhowanipore to trusted veteran Sovandeb
Chattopadhyay. But she lost to her former protégé Adhikari by 1,956 votes. Chattopadhyay won from that seat and beat BJP’s Rudranil Ghosh, an actor-turned-politician, by a margin of around 29,000 votes.
History of Vidhan Parishad in Bengal
Dr Bidhan Chandra Roy, Bengal’s first chief minister after Independence formed the Vidhan Parishad in 1952, and it continued till 1969 when the second United Front government abolished the Upper House bypassing a Bill.
According to the United Front leaders, they termed it as ‘white elephant ‘and the most critical rehabilitation center for politicians who have lost elections. They have also mentioned that it’s a burden on the state exchequer, so it was abolished.
Civic body members and elected legislators elect Vidhan Parishad members. The Governor can nominate some members as well. Bengal’s last Vidhan Parishad had 75 members, of whom the Governor appointed nine.
What other parties say
CPI(M) leaders, however, believe that there is no need to set up a Parishad to rehabilitate old senior leaders as it’s a burden on state exchequer.
Rabin Deb, CPI(M) central committee member, said, “When the state government is battling to fight COVID-19, it is unnecessary to spend such a considerable amount of time and resources setting up the Parishad to rehabilitate the ministers. They can easily contest from other seats which have been lying vacant. Two candidates at two centers in Murshidabad district died of COVID-19 before the elections were held, and the TMC’s winning candidate at Khardah in North 24 Parganas died of the same infection.”
Meanwhile, the BJP leaders also highlighted that it is unnecessary to set up such a Parishad at a time when the state government admitted that they are reeling under a financial crunch.
Dilip Ghosh, state BJP president, said, “It is unnecessary to set up Vidhan Parishad now when the state government is already reeling under a financial crunch. The main task is to control the COVID-19 pandemic by working closely with the Union government.”