Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee will present a proposal to form a State Legislative Council in the Assembly today. On May 18, after taking oath as the Chief Minister of West Bengal for the third time, Mamata Banerjee had approved the cabinet's decision to form the Legislative Council, the upper house of the state assembly.
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In the past, Mamata Banerjee had announced that intellectuals and veteran leaders who were not nominated for the assembly elections would be made members of the Legislative Council.
The CM had promised to send those who were part of his campaign in Nandigram and Singur to the Legislative Council after the 2011 assembly elections.
Many senior leaders of the party like the current Finance Minister Amit Mitra, Purnendu Bose cannot be included in the assembly, preparations are on to send them to the Legislative Council. In view of this, it has been decided to establish a Legislative Council.
Let us tell you that in the recent elections, Mamata Banerjee had lost to her rival candidate Suvendu Adhikari. There are Legislative Councils in 6 states in the country, which include Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Karnataka. West Bengal has 294 assembly seats.
Number of members in a Legislative Council cannot exceed one third of the members of the Legislative Assembly, so the Legislative Council in Bengal can have 98 members.
According to the rules, in order to constitute a Legislative Council, the state government must first pass a bill in the assembly. One-third of the members will be elected by the legislators, while the other one-third are elected by the municipal bodies, District Council and other local bodies.
There will also be a provision to nominate members to the council by the government. Like the Rajya Sabha, it also has a Chairman and a Deputy Speaker. The tenure of all will be 6 years.
Bengal previously had a Legislative Council, but was abolished in 1969. The BJP has not reacted to this proposal of the government, but the Left parties have opposed this decision of Mamata. Left parties say that this step of Mamata is not in the interest of the state.

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