Kolkata, 17 December (H.S.) :

Leader of the Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari, on Wednesday launched a sharp attack on state minister Aroop Biswas, mocking spelling mistakes in his handwritten resignation letter submitted in the wake of the controversy surrounding the proposed Lionel Messi event at Yuva Bharati Krirangan.

Adhikari did not stop at criticising Biswas alone, but also took a swipe at Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. Sharing an image of the letter through which the Chief Minister accepted the resignation, the BJP leader pointed out what he claimed were errors in sentence construction and language.

In a post on social media, Adhikari wrote, “Like teacher, like student,” and alleged that there were growing demands for the removal of both the “executive minister” and what he termed the “inept minister (Chief Minister)” over what he described as an embarrassing episode.

He repeatedly highlighted spelling mistakes in the Bengali words related to the sports minister’s designation and the context mentioned in Biswas’s resignation letter. According to Adhikari, the handwritten letter contained incorrect spellings of key Bengali terms, including references to the sports portfolio and Yuva Bharati Krirangan.

Images of the resignation letter circulated in the media showed that the term used for sports minister and even the name of Yuva Bharati Krirangan were allegedly misspelt. Adhikari made the document public, marking the errors in red ink and ridiculing the minister.

He also shared the Chief Minister’s acceptance letter, claiming that the sentence related to accepting the resignation was improperly drafted and that its language was objectionable.

The issue has sparked a fresh political slugfest in the state. However, the Trinamool Congress has not issued any official response so far to the allegations regarding spelling and language.

It may be recalled that following the controversy over the Lionel Messi-related programme in Kolkata on December 13, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee accepted Aroop Biswas’s resignation and relieved him of the sports portfolio. The Chief Minister has retained charge of the sports department, while Biswas continues to handle the youth affairs and power departments.

Hindusthan Samachar / Satya Prakash Singh