Mamata-chaired meet recommends Justice (retd) Rabindranath Samanta as Lokayukta; Suvendu boycotts

Recommendation of New Lokayukta Amid Continued Political Boycott in 2025

PTI, KOLKATA, DEC 1 2025: The West Bengal government on Monday recommended retired Justice Rabindranath Samanta as the state's new Lokayukta at an annual sitting chaired by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, a meeting defined as much by its constitutional formality as by the conspicuous absence of Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari. 

Justice Samanta, who retired as Calcutta High Court judge in June 2023, succeeded Justice (Retired) Ashim Kumar Roy who served as Lokayukta from November 2018 and continued till August, 2025, after a two-year extension granted in 2023. 

The new Lokayukta's name has been recommended by a panel chaired by the Chief Minister. His appointment will be made by the Governor, following which he will take the oath. But Monday's statutory process unfolded amid a deepening political rift, with Leader of the Opposition Suvendu Adhikari boycotting the meeting for the fourth consecutive year, a move that has become emblematic of the widening gulf between state secretariat Nabanna and the BJP ahead of the 2026 Assembly polls. 

Despite receiving the formal invitation sent every year as per convention, Adhikari stayed away, reiterating his refusal to sit with the Chief Minister. "I am not attending the Lokayukta meeting. I will not sit with a Chief Minister who is heading a corrupt government," he had declared on Friday, adding that the recent assault on BJP MP Khagen Murmu in Malda made any engagement with the ruling establishment "morally impossible." 

"After seeing Murmu drenched in blood, no sane person can sit next to those who have the blood of BJP workers on their hands," he said, terming the ruling party "morally bankrupt". 

In a subsequent letter to the government, the Nandigram MLA accused the state government of "repeatedly violating constitutional norms," arguing that his presence would "legitimise an unconstitutional process". The TMC dismissed the boycott as a calculated political stunt.