Guwahati: Assam Congress leader and MLA from Nazira constituency Debabrata Saikia is no longer Leader of Opposition in the Assam Assembly. This was announced in the Assam Gazette. The change is with effect from January 1, 2021.
This has happened after two Congress MLAs - Ajanta Neog (MLA from Golaghat) and Rajdeep Gowala (MLA from Lakhipur) had recently joined the BJP and two other Congress legislators and senior leaders of the party - Tarun Gogoi and Pranab Gogoi passed away, reducing the number of Congress MLAs from 24 to 20.
"The present strength of the Indian National Congress Legislature Party, Assam Legislative Assembly is not equal to the quorum fixed to constitute a sitting of the House, that is one-sixth of the total number of the House as required in the aforementioned provisions, and therefore the Hon'ble Speaker, Assam Legislative Assembly has been pleased to withdraw the recognition of Shri Debabrata Saikia, MLA, as Leader of the Opposition, Assam Legislative Assembly, w.e.f. 1st January, 2021," the Gazette notification said.
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