Kolkata: The Speaker of the West Bengal Assembly, Biman Bandopadhyay, on Wednesday clearly said that the former state Education Minister and ex-Trinamool Congress secretary general Partha Chatterjee will not be entitled to any special treatment within the Assembly as he was when he was a member of the state cabinet.
The Speaker also made it clear Chatterjee, who is now an independent legislator following his suspension from the Trinamool Congress immediately after his arrest by Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials in July 2022 in connection with the cash-for-school-job case in West Bengal, will also not be entitled to a separate room within the Assembly premises which he was earlier entitled to as a minister.
As an Independent legislator, he will neither be allotted a seat on the treasury bench nor on the opposition bench. It is learnt that he will be allotted a new seat somewhere between the treasury bench and the opposition bench, which is mainly allotted for either independent legislators or for MLAs of parties having negligible presence in the House.
Currently, the lone All India Secular Front (AISF) MLA Nawsad Siddique is allotted a seat between the treasury bench and the opposition bench.
Earlier in the day, the office of the Speaker received a letter from Chatterjee in which the latter enquired about the date of commencement of the forthcoming winter session of the West Bengal Assembly, making his intentions clear about participating in the session.
He was released on bail earlier this month after being in judicial custody for three years and three months.
After his release on bail, he wrote to the West Bengal Chief Minister, Mamata Banerjee, Trinamool Congress general secretary Abhishek Banerjee, and the party’s state president in West Bengal, Subrata Bakshi, seeking clarification on the provision of the Trinamool Congress constitution under which he was suspended from the party.
However, his letter has evoked no response to date.
(IANS)
