TMC on Saturday announced the names of its Leader of Opposition, Deputy Leader of Opposition and Chief Whip in the West Bengal Assembly. Senior party leader Sovandeb Chattopadhyay has been made the Leader of Opposition in the 18th West Bengal Assembly. This time he has been elected from Ballygunge assembly seat of South Kolkata.
Trinamool Congress general secretary and Lok Sabha MP Abhishek Banerjee announced Chattopadhyay’s name in a statement issued on Saturday night. It is noteworthy that being the Chief Minister of West Bengal, the Leader of the House in the Assembly is Suvendu Adhikari. Adhikari was sworn in as the ninth Chief Minister of West Bengal on Saturday morning. He has become the first Chief Minister of the BJP-led government in the state after independence.
Chattopadhyay was the Agriculture Minister and Parliamentary Affairs Minister in the previous Trinamool government led by Mamata Banerjee from 2021 to 2026. Before this he had also been the electricity minister of the state. In the statement issued by the party, two women MLAs have been made Deputy Leader of Opposition. The first among them is actress-turned-politician Naina Bandyopadhyay, who is the MLA from Chowringhee assembly seat of North Kolkata. She is also the wife of senior Trinamool Congress Lok Sabha MP Sudip Bandopadhyay.
The second deputy leader of opposition has been Asima Patra, who is an MLA from Dhaniakhali assembly seat in Hooghly district. At the same time, the party has appointed Firhad Hakim as the Chief Whip of the Trinamool Congress Legislative Party in the Assembly. Firhad Hakim, also known as ‘Bobby’, is currently the Mayor of Kolkata Municipal Corporation. He has also been the Minister of Municipal Administration and Urban Development in all three tenures of the Trinamool government from 2011 to 2026. –
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