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News Desk: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday announced to celebrate ‘Khela Hobe Diwas’ every year in the state. She, however, didn’t mention the date, announcing to declare it in the coming days.
During her speech in the West Bengal Assembly, Banerjee said she has decided to celebrate ‘Khela Hobe Diwas’ after getting good response from people across the state during the assembly polls.
“In Bengal, people have appreciated ‘Khela Hobe’ and, therefore, we will have ‘Khela Hobe Diwas,” she added.
‘Khela Hobe’ — the political slogan of the ruling Trinamool Congress during the 2021 elections became viral in Bengal as TMC leaders and party workers challenged the opposition leaders, mainly from the BJP, to counter the ‘Jai Shree Ram’ slogan.
‘Khela Hobe’ slogan was written by TMC spokesperson and general secretary of the party’s youth wing, Debangshu Bhattacharya. A civil engineer by profession, Bhattacharya emerged as a massive crowd-puller for the Trinamool through the slogan.
Hitting out at BJP leaders and thanking Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar for the inaugural address (on July 2), Banerjee said, “I have seen BJP leaders like Rajnath Singh and Sushma Swaraj but this BJP (hinting at current central and state BJP leaders) do not know culture, courtesy, decency and civility.”
She also condemned the ruckus created by state BJP leaders led by Leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari during the Governor’s inaugural speech in the assembly on July 2.
That day, Dhankhar had tabled his address after reading out a few lines of his 18-page speech. Then, he had to cut short his speech amid protests by BJP MLAs over incidents of post-poll violence in the state.
While criticising the role of Election Commission of India (ECI) during the assembly election in Bengal, she said, “It is with the help of the EC, BJP had won so many seats otherwise they would not have won even 30 seats.”
Raising the issue of fuel price hike, the chief minister said, “It is unfortunate that the common people are suffering due to the increase in petrol and diesel prices. It has crossed Rs 100. Not the least, we have seen how dead bodies were disposed of in river Ganga in Uttar Pradesh. What is going on in the country is unfortunate.”
BJP MLAs Walk Out
Meanwhile, BJP MLAs raised their voice against the Legislative Council (Vidhan Parishad) proposal made by the ruling TMC.
The TMC, however, claimed that Vidhan Parishad exists in three BJP-ruled States.
The proposal was passed on a majority of 196-69 votes amid opposition by the BJP. Banerjee acted on her poll manifesto promise to revive Vidhan Parishad in Bengal after 52 years. Vidhan Parishad, which was in place from 1952 to 1969, was later dissolved.
Suvendu Adhikari and other BJP MLAs, however, staged a walk-out from the assembly following an argument with the treasury bench over Nandigram poll results and Vidhan Parishad proposal.
“We walked out of the assembly because we raised the issue of the chief minister’s defeat from the Nandigram seat, but the Speaker told us that the matter is subjudice. Therefore, we have decided to walk out of the Assembly. Why should I stay there?” Adhikari said.
