KOLKATA: BJP’s Krishnanagar Uttar MLA Mukul Roy’s return to Trinamool Congress has actually worked for his elevation in the West Bengal assembly. Roy was allocated a seat in the front row beside leader of opposition Suvendu Adhikari, who had been aggressively arguing for cancellation of Roy’s assembly membership under antidefection law.
Roy, who was initially allotted the 42nd seat in the third row beside BJP chief whip Manoj Tigga and BJP’s Natabari MLA Mihir Goswami on the first day of the budget session, was brought to the front row and allocated the 15th seat beside the leader of opposition.
Roy’s elevation is seen as a step forward towards his getting the coveted Public Accounts Committee chairman’s post because the Speaker has a deciding role in both actions – determining seating arrangement of MLAs and also that of PAC chairman.
But MLAs missed the sight of Roy sitting beside his bête noire Adhikari because the latter didn’t come for the assembly session that was adjourned after obituaries on Monday. Roy, on the contrary, was present in the House catching up with ruling party MLAs as a member of Public Accounts Committee.
BJP didn’t include Roy’s name on the list that had Ashok Lahiri, Suvendu Adhikari, Bankim Ghosh, Ambika Roy, Vivekananda Baury, Nikhil Ranjan Dey and Tarun Maiti, who have all become PAC members.
BJP’s 77 MLAs came down to 75 after two MPs, Nisith Pramanik and Jagannath Sarkar, who had won the assembly polls resigned as MLAs because they chose to continue as MPs. The party suffered a jolt after Roy returned to Trinamool though he won assembly polls on a BJP ticket.
On Monday, BJP’s Bagda MLA Biswajit Das’s called on Trinamool chief whip Nirmal Ghosh in his assembly chamber, sparking speculation if BJP was heading for a similar development.
But Das shot down such speculation. “I am an MLA. I can meet anybody,” he said. The Bagda MLA had defied the party whip on signing the attendance register on the assembly session’s opening day. Das didn’t offer any explanation for his act.
