LoP demands 'West Bengal Day' observance in assembly, speaker says no precedent

Without his intervention, the state would not have been part of India during the partition.

Opposition leader Suvendu Adhikari on Monday demanded that June 20 be observed as 'Poschimbongo Divas' or 'West Bengal Day' in the assembly by the state government to pay tribute to the contributions of Bharatiya Jan Sangh founder Syama Prasad Mookerjee in ensuring that the western part of undivided Bengal remained a part of India during its partition in 1947.

Speaker Biman Banerjee, however, said there was no precedent of observing such a day in the assembly.

''We want that June 20 be observed as 'Poschimbongo Divas' in the assembly to pay tribute to the contributions of Syama Prasad Mookerjee. Without his intervention, the state would not have been part of India during the partition. ''On this day in 1947, voting took place in the assembly on whether West Bengal should be part of India or Pakistan. Mookerjee took an active part in that process to ensure West Bengal remained with India,'' Adhikari, the Leader of Opposition, said in the assembly.

Following this, Banerjee said there was no record of 'Poschimbongo Divas' or June 20 being observed in the assembly.

''There is no such record in the assembly, nor is there any such precedent of observing this day in the House,'' he said.

Later, while speaking to reporters, Adhikari, the BJP MLA from Nandigram, said the TMC government doesn't want to recognise the contributions of Mookerjee due to political reasons.

Bharatiya Jana Sangh was the predecessor to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the opposition in West Bengal.