Suvendu Adhikari to take on Mamata in WB house as leader of opposition

The Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday unanimously elected Suvendu Adhikari as Leader of Opposition in the new West Bengal assembly to take on Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in the house.

Union minister Ravi Shankar Prasad announced Adhikari’s name as leader of the BJP legislature party in the assembly after a meeting of the legislators at the party’s Hastings office.

The saffron party has emerged as the main opposition party winning 77 seats in the 294-member house.Adhikari has been preferred by the saffron party ahead of senior party leaders like Mukul Roy, who also got elected from Nadia constituency, to take on Banerjee in the house.

The ruling Trinamool Congress bagged 213 seats while Indian Secular Front emerged victorious in one assembly segment and an Independent R S Lepcha, belonging to the Binay Tamang faction of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha won from Kalimpong.

Congress and the Left party drew a blank.

-PTI