Budget session: Vice Prez Jagdeep Dhankhar seeks to address Bengal Assembly

Kolkata: Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar has expressed his desire to address the Bengal legislative assembly during the ongoing budget session.

A special Business Advisory Committee meeting has been scheduled for Wednesday, February 12 to discuss the matter. According to sources in the state Assembly, there is no provision allowing a vice president to speak in the house during the Budget session. However, Speaker Biman Banerjee may convene a special session after the Budget session, inviting the former Bengal Governor to deliver his address.

According to sources, the Speaker is very happy with Dhankhar wishing to address the Assembly. Sources close to the development said that Dhankhar wanted to express his love for Bengal in his speech and had promised not to criticise the state government.

“His speech will mainly focus on his experiences during his three-year stint as Bengal Governor. He is likely to speak on the development initiative taken by the state government. It is something to show his love, respect and gratitude for the people of the state,” a senior official of the Assembly said. Dhankar has served as the Governor of Bengal between 2019 and 2022. According to senior officials in the Assembly, Dhankhar sent a letter through a Delhi bureaucrat to Speaker Biman Banerjee, expressing his desire to deliver a speech at the beginning of the Budget session.

In 2021, the then Vice President Venkaiah Naidu spoke at a Special Session of the Arunachal Pradesh Assembly. He later addressed the legislators of the Mizoram Legislative Assembly in 2022 during a Special Session on the concluding day of the Budget session.