BJP MLA Rathindra Bose was elected unopposed as the Speaker of the 18th West Bengal Assembly on Friday, becoming the first legislator from the northern part of the State to hold the post.
His name was proposed in the House by Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari, following which pro tem Speaker Tapas Roy conducted a voice vote.
Roy declared Bose elected as the Speaker of the Assembly after all 207 BJP legislators extended their support in his favour.
Adhikari had on Thursday announced Bose, the MLA from Cooch Behar Dakshin seat, as the BJP’s candidate for the Speaker’s post in the newly constituted 18th West Bengal Assembly, while the Opposition TMC decided not to field a nominee. Bose had filed his nomination for the post of Speaker on Thursday.
With the BJP enjoying an overwhelming majority of 207 MLAs in the 294-member House after its emphatic victory in the recent Assembly polls, Bose’s elevation was a mere formality. The TMC’s decision to stay away from the contest cleared the path for his election without a fight. Bose became the first MLA from north Bengal in post-Independence history to hold the Speaker’s chair in the West Bengal Assembly.
The development is being seen as a strategic signal from the BJP Government towards a region that has emerged as one of the BJP’s strongest political bastions in the State over the last decade.
Associated with the RSS and a chartered accountant by profession, Bose is a known face in north Bengal politics. Bose’s election is also seen as a departure from a long-observed political convention in the State, where parties traditionally preferred lawyers or legislators with legal backgrounds for the Speaker’s chair.
During the previous TMC regime, veteran legislator Biman Banerjee served as Speaker. Earlier, under Left Front Governments, political leaders, such as Syed Abdul Mansur Habibullah and Hashim Abdul Halim, had occupied the chair.
