The Executive body of the State legislative Assembly of West Bengal helps in the governance of the state. The Unicameral State Legislative Assembly takes important decisions on various vital social, economic and political issues that shape the future of the state of West Bengal. The Executive Body West Bengal is headed by the Governor of the state who is further assisted by the Chief Minister and his Council of Ministers.
The Governor is appointed by the President of India. At present, West Bengal is blessed with Shri Gopalkrishna Gandhi as the Governor. Being a successful Civil Servant, Shri Gopalkrishna Gandhi is aware of the intricacies of administration. His experience has helped him to rise above the situations and offer instant solutions to the numerous problems faced by the state.
The Governor is supported by the Chief Minister, Shri Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee and his Council of Ministers. The Chief Minister and the Councils of Minister are elected by the adult franchise. Anyone who is the citizen of West Bengal and is above eighteen years of age is authorized to cast a vote in favor of any candidate. After the general election as the Member of the Legislative Assembly, the leader of the majority party becomes the Chief Minister. The MLA's come to a consensus and chose a leader amongst them, who is then formally invited by the Governor to form the Government. The Chief Minister then appoints the various Ministers who are assigned with important portfolios. All the Ministers and the Chief Minister are collectively responsible to the state Legislative Assembly.
The Executive Body of West Bengal also deals with the Judiciary of the state. The High Court takes all the important decisions regarding the Civil and the Criminal matters affecting the citizens of the state. The High Court is equipped with the Chief Justice and several other Lawyers. The City Civil Court and the Labour and Tribunal Court looks into the matters that falls within their jurisdiction.
Assembly Constituencies
The state of West Bengal is divided into 294 assembly constituencies. The members of the state legislative assembly are elected from these assembly constituencies. The state has been divided into 294 assembly constituencies to ensure adequate representation of the people of the state in the legislative assembly.
The assembly constituencies include an appropriate representation of the people and the populace of every district of the state of West Bengal. The districts maybe divided into a number of constituencies to secure the interest of each citizen. The elected members of the assembly constituencies become members of the Vidahn Sabha or the legislative assembly of the state of West Bengal situated in the capital city of Kolkata. The city of Kolkata is divided into more than 10 assembly constituencies that include the constituencies of Dum Dum, Alipore, Tollygaunge, Dhakuria, Ballygaunje and Sealdah. To protect the vested interests of the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes of the state, the electoral body of the country has made provisions for their adequate representation through the assembly constituencies. There are several West Bengal assembly constituencies that elect the members of these categories. Mekliganj, Sitalkuchi, Malda, Sagardigha, Raiganj, Rajnagar and Taltola constituency of Kolkata elect members of the scheduled caste. Some of the constituencies that elect scheduled tribe members are Raipur, Nayagram, Kalchini, Nagrakata and Mal.
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National Political Parties
West Bengal is a state, which has contributed a lot to the country's political richness. The state has always sent able representatives who have made unforgettable impressions in national level politics. Thus the National Political Parties have always shown immense interest in the West Bengal state politics. The main National Political Parties in West Bengal are: -
Among the National Political Parties, the Indian National Congress has always been powerful in West Bengal; in fact it is the politicians from West Bengal who had played a major role in its inception. After the Indian Independence, the Indian National Congress, despite its divisions and break ups, managed to hold on to the power before it was finally overthrown by the Left Front in 1977. The Communist Party of India or the CPI was established in 1925 but it remains as an underground party till 1942. The Communist Party of India Marxist - CPIM, broke away from the original Communist Party of India due to ideological differences. The two parties came together in the left front and have been in power since 1977 - a record success. The left front emerged victorious again in the 2006 state assembly elections to serve its eighth consecutive term. The Bharatiya Janta Party - BJP was not very strong in the state politics till the recent years. The JD-S, JD - U and Nationalist Congress Party have also come into the political frame of the state.
Parliamentary Constituencies
There are 42 parliamentary constituencies in the state of West Bengal. The members of the parliamentary constituencies of the state are elected to the Lok Sabha or the lower house of legislature of the country. The parliamentary constituencies are distributed all over the state.
The government ensures that there is adequate representation of the state in the Lok Sabha. The parliamentary constituencies in a state are divided according to the number of seats in the legislative assembly of the state. The state of West Bengal has reservations of 294 seats in the legislative assembly of the state. The representation of the state of West Bengal in the parliament accounts for a seat for every seventh member of the legislative assembly of the state.
Among the 42 parliamentary constituencies, provisions have been made for the representation of the scheduled castes and the scheduled tribes of the state. 8 seats are reserved for the scheduled castes while there are provisions for 2 seats in the house for the scheduled tribes. The elected members of the Alipurduar and the Jhargram parliamentary constituencies represent the scheduled tribes of the state in the parliament constituted after the elections in 2004. The members of the scheduled caste were elected from Cooch Behar, Balurghat, Nabadwip, Joynagar, Mathurapur, Vishnupur, Durgapur and Birbhum for the 2004 election to the Lok Sabha.
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Last Updated on 20 March 2013
