Kolkata: Suvendu Adhikari, the Leader of Opposition, did not attend the all-party meeting on Monday.
This was the first all-party meeting before the commencement of the Budget session of the newly-formed government.
Speaker Biman Bandyopadhyay had convened the meeting. All Trinamool Congress MLAs along with
their counterparts in the BJP and ISF attended the meeting. This was the first all-party meeting since Independence in which there were no MLAs from the Congress and the Left Front.
Adhikari had attended the meeting of the BJP Legislature party and skipped the all-party meeting. This is one of the rare incidents in the political history of Bengal when the Leader of Opposition did not attend the first all-party meeting of the newly-formed government.
Adhikari also did not attend the meeting of the Business Advisory Committee. No explanation was given by the BJP MLAs on Adhikari's absence. Partha Chattopadhyay, minister for Parliamentary Affairs, said it would have been good had he been present at the meeting of the Business Advisory Committee as the issue of the creation of Legislative Council was discussed.
The Speaker sought the cooperation of the MLAs across party lines to run the Assembly smoothly.