List of leaders of the opposition in the West Bengal Legislative Assembly

The Leader of the Opposition in the West Bengal Legislative Assembly is the politician who leads the official opposition in the West Bengal Legislative Assembly.

Leader of the Opposition West Bengal Legislative Assembly
Incumbent Suvendu Adhikari since 10 May 2021
Style	The Hon’ble
Member of	West Bengal Legislative Assembly
Reports to	West Bengal Government
Seat	Vidhan Bhaban, Kolkata
Nominator	Members of the Official Opposition of the Legislative Assembly
Appointer	Speaker of the Assembly
Term length	5 years Till the Assembly Continues
Formation	12 January 1937; 87 years ago (1937-01-12)

Eligibility

Official Opposition^[1] is a term used in West Bengal Legislative Assembly to designate the political party which has secured the second largest number of seats in the assembly. In order to get formal recognition, the party must have at least 10% of total membership of the Legislative Assembly. A single party has to meet the 10% seat criterion, not an alliance. Many of the Indian state legislatures also follows this 10% rule while the rest of them prefer single largest opposition party according to the rules of their respective houses.

List of Opposition leaders

No	Portrait	Name	Constituency	Term			Assembly (Election)	Party
–		Vacant		1946	1957			N/A
1		Jyoti Basu	Baranagar	1957	1962	4–5 years	2nd (1957 election)	Communist Party of India
(1)		Jyoti Basu	Baranagar	1962	1967	4–5 years	3rd (1962 election)	Communist Party of India
2		Khagendra Nath Dasgupta	Jalpaiguri	1967	1969	1–2 years	4th (1967 election)	Indian National Congress
3		Siddhartha Shankar Ray	Chowranghee	1969	1971	1–2 years	5th (1969 election)	Indian National Congress
(1)		Jyoti Basu	Baranagar	1971	1972	0–1 years	6th (1971 election)	Communist Party of India (Marxist)
4		Biswanath Mukherjee	Midnapore	1972	1977	4–5 years	7th (1972 election)	Communist Party of India
–		Vacant		1977	1982		8th (1977 election)	N/A
5		Abdus Sattar	Lalgola	1982	1987	4–5 years	9th (1982 election)	Indian National Congress
(5)		Abdus Sattar	Lalgola	1987	1991	3–4 years	10th (1987 election)	Indian National Congress
6		Zainal Abedin		1991	1996	4–5 years	11th (1991 election)	Indian National Congress
7		Atish Chandra Sinha	Kandi	1996	2001	4–5 years	12th (1996 election)	Indian National Congress
8		Pankaj Kumar Banerjee	Tollygunj	14 June 2001	12 May 2006	4 years, 332 days	13th (2001 election)	Trinamool Congress
9		Partha Chatterjee	Behala Paschim	21 September 2006	13 May 2011	4 years, 234 days	14th (2006 election)
10		Surjya Kanta Mishra	Narayangarh	1 June 2011	25 May 2016	4 years, 359 days	15th (2011 election)	Communist Party of India (Marxist)
11		Abdul Mannan	Champdani	2 June 2016	3 May 2021	4 years, 335 days	16th (2016 election)	Indian National Congress
12		Suvendu Adhikari	Nandigram	13 May 2021	Incumbent	3 years, 172 days	17th (2021 election)	Bharatiya Janata Party

Deputy Leader of the Opposition

Name	Term	Party
Ambica Banerjee	1996–2006	Indian National Congress
Trinamool Congress
Abu Hasem Khan Choudhury	2006–2009	Indian National Congress
Manas Bhunia	2009–2011
Subhas Naskar	2011–2016	Revolutionary Socialist Party (India)
Nepal Mahata	2016–2021	Indian National Congress
Mihir Goswami	2021–Incumbent	Bharatiya Janata Party

References

1. "Salary and Allowances of Leaders of Opposition in Parliament Act, 1977". Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs, Government of India. Archived from the original on 16 January 2010. Retrieved 1 October 2012.