Kolkata, Jan 5 (IANS) The Leader of the Opposition (LoP) in the West Bengal Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari, said on Sunday that how Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee could use her own letterhead in writing a letter to the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Gyanesh Kumar, raising the political contentions of Trinamool Congress.

LoP Adhikari raised this query reacting to a letter from the Chief Minister to the CEC that was circulated among the media persons earlier on Sunday, where she expressed concern over alleged irregularities, procedural violations, and administrative lapses during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) process in the state.

“The letter from Mamata Banerjee using the official letterhead of the Chief Minister of West Bengal to the CEC is illegal and unconstitutional. The post of Chief Minister is constitutional. So in this case, the official letterhead of the Chief Minister should not have been used,” he told media persons while reacting to the letter from the Chief Minister to the CEC.

According to LoP Adhikari, the chair of the Chief Minister is both an administrative and constitutional post.

“That is exactly why B.R. Ambedkar did not use the term ‘For the party, By the Party, Of the Party’. He used the term ‘For the people, By the people, Of the people’. If Mamata Banerjee had to raise any complaint to the CEC about the political contentions of her party, Trinamool Congress, she should not have raised that objection using her official letterhead as the Chief Minister. She should have addressed the same letter to the CEC in the letterhead of her political post with Trinamool Congress,” the LoP said.

“As the representative and as the Chairperson of a political party, Mamata Banerjee had every right to raise any political contention to the CEC. But in that case, she should have used the letterhead of Trinamool Congress chairpersons in writing that letter to the CEC,” LoP Adhikari added.

He also said that the CEC should treat this letter from Mamata Banerjee as nothing but trash.

“As a Bengali and also the Leader of the Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly, I feel ashamed that the Chief Minister’s letterhead is being used to raise the political contention of a political party to the CEC,” LoP Adhikari added.

–IANS

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