In a rare gesture, the BJP government of Bengal invited a Trinamool MLA for the administrative review meeting held by chief minister Suvendu Adhikari at Uttarkanya in Siliguri on Wednesday.
Sangita Roy, the Trinamool MLA from Sitai in Cooch Behar, however, could not attend the meeting as she was away in Delhi.
Suvendu visited north Bengal on Wednesday for the first time after assuming the chief minister’s office and held the review meeting of five districts — Cooch Behar, Alipurduar, Jalpaiguri, Darjeeling and Kalimpong.
In all, there are 27 Assembly seats in these five districts. In the recently held Assembly elections, the BJP won 26 seats while Trinamool won only the Sitai seat.
“We have decided that we will invite MLAs of all political parties for the administrative review meetings. Accordingly, we had invited the sole Trinamool MLA of these five districts today (Wednesday),” Suvendu said at the meeting.
Trinamool MLA Roy confirmed that she received the invitation. “I have received the invitation for the meeting. However, as I am away in Delhi for the medical treatment of a family member, I could not make it,” she said over the phone.
“Had I been in Cooch Behar, I would have surely attended the meeting,” the MLA, who defeated the BJP candidate by 2,721 votes, added.
Sources said that the chief minister, however, expressed reservations about calling MPs from other parties for administrative review meetings.
MLA Roy's husband Jagadish Chandra Barma Basunia, the Trinamool MP from Cooch Behar, did not receive any invitation to the meeting.
Political observers said that ever since the new government was formed in Bengal, Suvendu and the BJP were trying to prove that they were “different from Trinamool”.
“Calling an MLA from the Opposition for a review meeting is indeed a rare gesture," said a north Bengal political observer. "In the 15 years of Trinamool's tenure, no legislator from the Opposition was called for such administrative review meetings. We believe that, in due course, we will see MLAs of Trinamool and other parties attending these meetings convened by the BJP government,” said an observer.
Additional reporting by Main Uddin Chisti in Cooch Behar