JOIN USMamata Banerjee to occupy CM's chair today
Mamata faxed her letter of resignation as railway minister to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Thursday. However, the overall representations of women in the new 15th state Assembly has dropped by 2.38 per cent over the previous one.
In the outgoing 14th Assembly, the total number of women MLAs was 41, which was the highest since the first Assembly constituted in 1952. This time, the number of women legislators has come down to 34 in the 294-member Assembly. Despite this, the new Assembly has the second highest number of women legislators.
Warm signal
In a significant strategy to send a warm signal to the Left Front, the Trinamool Congress on Thursday dispatched its senior leader Partha Chatterjee to the Palm Avenue residence of outgoing chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacherje to request his presence along with wife Meera for the swearing-in ceremony.
The visit to Bhattacharjee’s residence was the first by any Trinamool leader since the party was formed in 1998. “We’ll do our work showing due courtesy to all,” Chatterjee said after coming out of Bhattacherjee’s residence. It was not immediately known if Bhattacherjee would be attending the ceremony. Another Trinamool leader and Mamata confidante Mukul Roy drove to the office of Forward Bloc to personally invite Bloc leader Ashok Ghosh for the swearing-in.
On Tuesday, Chief Minister-designate Mamata Banerjee herself went to expelled CPM leader and former Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee’s residence to invite him for the big day.
A senior Left Front leader and RSP central committee member Manoj Bhattacharjee said, “I appreciate the good gesture, but I feel this is not enough. This humility should also be present in the party’s grassroot level.”