Teerath Singh Rawat who took his oath just four months back resigns as the CM of Uttarakhand. and was replaced by Pushkar Singh Dhami, the young face in states politics. He in his farewell speech said that he’s giving his resignations on the democratic grounds. There are many rumors floating around about this. But the most prominent was that his 6 months validity of being a CM without getting elected in any house is going to end in mid of September.

He was introduced to the CM post to maintain balance between party workers, people and Sangh Parivaar as his predecessor failed in it. For continue his regime he needed to get elected to the Uttarakhand assembly within six months of his appointment as chief minister which is going to expire in mid September. But BJP party top leadership very well knew that due to the fear of Corona Election commission will not nod to any election soon in future. They have seen what the Bengal and other state elections brings to us. Apart from that Rawat had missed the opportunity to contest the March 29 bypoll from Salt assembly seat. He was down with Covid and the BJP too was not confident of fielding him from Salt seat. As country was going though rough pandemic period and Uttarakhand was also highly affected not only by Corona but also was by exaggerated criticism.

Mamta’s Fear

Mamta Banerjee the current serving CM of Bengal who sweeps the state legislative election for his party, but interestingly lost from Nandigram to Suvendu Adhikari, who’s a friend turn foe to Mamta and current leader of opposition in Bengal. And as expected Mamta immediately took oath as CM after winning election.  But currently Mamta is not even a member of Bengal legislative house.

Mamta is now on the mat to face what Rawat has gone through. Many experts believe that the top BJP leaders convinced Rawat to resign as to settle political scores from Mamta.

Legislative Assembly in Bengal-: Lifeline to Mamta

To be on the safe side Mamta and her party passed a resolution supporting committee report that favoured the creation of West Bengal Legislative Council or West Bengal Vidhan Parishad in the West Bengal Assembly on Tuesday. Bengal had a Vidhan Parishad from 1952 to 1969. The Bengal legislative council was dissolved with effect from 1 August, 1969, during the time of United Front government in the state.

BJP and other opposition parties in Bengal (however they are too less in number) are soo much against this bill,as expected. BJP being the major opposition party in state opposed the bill in house but it was easily passed as TMC outnumbered BJP MLA’s.  

BJP is saying that the TMC wants to use “backdoor politics” to help party leaders get elected as lawmakers despite having lost the Assembly polls. The BJP leaders are clearly referring to Mamata Banerjee who has time till first week of November to get elected as an MLA or MLC to retain her chief ministership. They are also in oppose of this as this will put a huge financial burden on public. The only ISF MLA Naushad Siddiqui also opposed the resolution.

The Legislative Council of a state is constituted as per Article 168 of Indian Constitution. Article 171 of the Constitution of India says that the total number of Members in the Legislative council of a State shall not exceed 1/3 of the total number of Members in the Legislative Assembly. Legislative Assembly cannot have less than 40 members. In West Bengal Legislative Assembly, since the maximum number of MLAs is 294, the maximum number of West Bengal Vidhan Parishad seats is likely to be 98.

The formation of Bengal legislative council is a lifeline for Mamta as the prevailing COVID-19 situation, it’s not clear if the Election Commission would hold an Assembly bypoll in West Bengal before the expiration of the six months period. As EC has also not permitted Rawat for bypolls and he had to leave the office despite of having full majority in the house. The case is same with Mamta only plus point Mamta had is the time period is till Nov. A revival of the West Bengal Vidhan Parishad before the six month expiration period would allow Banerjee to get elected as MLC to the Upper House (Vidhan Parishad) and save her chief ministership.

But the procedure of Upper House is too complex and difficult for TMC. As it is now passed from the State assembly, it will now need governor initials on it for any further progress. After this it should get passed from both the houses of parliament, where BJP is in majority either directly or indirectly and then at last it requires the sign of President. The road of the Re-formation of Upper house in Bengal is not going to be easy for Mamta.     

By the way Mamta has started trying to Bury the hatchet by shoeing positive gesture to PM. After so much of tense election campaign in Bengal recently Mamta send some Mango to sweeten the relation with the centre to save her skin.

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