Set For a Council's Counsel

The state government’s decision to set up an upper house is a strategic move made by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee to augment her unfulfilled political and business interests

- Sujit Bhar

AMID the complete chaos that engulfed West Bengal’s political firmament during and after the assembly elections, came the announcement of the state cabinet approving the setting up of a Legislative Council, or an upper house of the state. As Bengal goes through the process, it will become the seventh Indian state to have an upper house. This enumeration is after the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kash mir’s Legislative Council was abolished through the J&K Reorganisation Bill, 2019, which reduced the state to the Union Territories of Jammu and Kash mir and Ladakh, respectively.

This was one of the promises made by the Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee-led dispensation that has returned to power for the third time in-a-row. A Legislative Council, on the lines of the Rajya Sabha, is also called Vidhan Pari shad and the states which have this bicameral system are: Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Karnataka. The Legislative Council, however, does not have powers on a par with the Rajya Sabha, though some of its activities are similar.

The Legislative Council is not a prerequisite for a government in a state. In fact, its flip side is in the positioning of a concoction of unelected people in seemingly high positions of power— though, in reality, they can only add to the nuisance value in the passing of a bill—where they may or may not have anything of worth to offer for six long years. The retirement of members is staggered, with a third of the members retiring every two years. However, the primary reason for setting up this extra expenditure for the state exchequer is that Mamata had promised to accommodate those who could not get elected to the assembly, as well as leaders who were excluded from the party candidates’ list for the assembly elections.