Suvendu Adhikary appointed JCI chairman

As expected Suvendu Adhikary, who recently defected from TMC to BJP has been appointed as the new chairman of Jute Corporation of India (JCI). The textile ministry gave its official seal on Wednesday. Suvendu is the fourth politician to join the JCI, previous being Congress leaders and MPs Idris Ali, Dwaipayan Sen and Santosh Roy in the early 70s. JCI was created to support jute cultivators in 1971 by undertaking minimum support price operations (MSP). JCI has 170 direct purchase centres of which less than 2 per cent are operational. There are almost 112 assembly seats in 15 jute districts of West Bengal. Bengal has 294 assembly seats in its 23 districts. Suvendu is expected to emerge as BJP’s ‘jute face’ in these districts. The districts are minority dominated and TMC’s big vote bank. The state is expected to go to polls in April-May.