First time in Bengal politics: Right wing govt to have right wing Oppn leader

As the House belongs to the Opposition, the role of the Opposition leader is very important. Between 2011-16, Suryakanta Misra was the Opposition leader. He has lost election this time.  The leader of Opposition enjoys the status of a cabinet minister. 

Pankaj Banerjee and Partha Chatterjee were leaders of Opposition between 2001-06 and 2006-11. 

Sidhartha Shankar Roy was the leader of Opposition when Jyoti Basu was the Chief Minister. 

JyotiBasu was well known for his fiery speeches when Bidhan Chandra Roy was the Chief Minister. 

It is said that Roy used to call up newspaper offices and requested the chief reporter to cover the speech of the Opposition leader. 

There were few Left MLAs but despite that every important issue like police firing and problem of refugees were highlighted by Basu. Under the present situation, two Congress leaders are well conversant with the Parliamentary procedure. 

They are Abdul Mannan and Mans Bhuniya. Both are MLAs for many years. It will be difficult for PCC to select the leader as both have clout in the party. 

Before the formation of the alliance, both Mannan and Bhuniya had distanced themselves from Adhir Chowdhury. Bhuniya had met Sonia Gandhi and told her not to make alliance with the Left.  But later he had to swallow the pill as all the leaders were in favour of the alliance. The alliance has helped the Congress to retain its seats and get two more seats taking the total to 44. 

But the alliance has brought misfortune to the Left. The Left allies have started criticising the CPI(M).

Whether Mannan or Bhuniya becomes the leader of Opposition, they will get two former ministers Ashok Bhattaharya and AnisurRahaman and a former MP Sujan Chakraborty by their side to intensify movement inside the House. 

After forming the government, full-fledged budget will have to be placed and the thrust area is likely to be industrialisation. Also, the state government will stress completion of various projects taken up early.  But now the speculation is centering round who will be the ministers. 

The TMC has ministers and political experts expect new faces like PrabirGhosal, Lakshmi Ratan Shukla, Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay and Tapas Roy in the ministry.