143 MLAs take oath of secrecy

KOLKATA: Subrata Mukherjee, who had been appointed as the pro-tem Speaker, administered the oath of secrecy to 143 MLAs on Thursday.

The oath-taking ceremony was held in the Assembly Hall. The MLAs from Kolkata, North and South 24-Parganas, Howrah, Hooghly and East and West Midnapore took their oath in office. Three Trinamool candidates from Kolkata who became MLAs in their inaugural debut, namely, Debashis Kumar (Rashbehari), Atin Ghosh (Kashipur- Belgachia) and Vivek Gupta (Jorasanko) were sworn-in as MLAs on Thursday. Actor-turned-politicians Soham Chakraborty, June Malia, Kanchan Mullick and Lovely Moitra took oath of secrecy. Director Raj Chakraborty and singer Aditi Munshi were also sworn-in as MLAs. Chiranjit Chakraborty, who became MLA for the third consecutive time, also took the oath.

Litterateur Monoranjan Byapari, who won from Balagarh (SC) seat in Hooghly, was also sworn-in. Byapari, a close associate of Mahasweta Devi, was nominated by Mamata Banerjee. Chandrima Bhattacharya, president of Trinamool Mahila Congress; Madan Mitra, Firhad Hakim and Partha Chatterjee were also sworn-in along with Ratna Chatterjee, wife of former Mayor Sovan Chatterjee.

Humayun Kabir, former IPS officer who won from Debra, took the oath. Nausad Siddiqui, a candidate from Indian Secular Front who won from Bhangar in South 24-Parganas took the oath of secrecy.

Birbaha Hansda took the oath in Santali language. Her parents, Naren Hansda and Chunibala were both MLAs. BJP candidate from Nandigram, Suvendu Adhikari, was sworn-in. Another 74 MLAs will be sworn-in on Friday. The MLAs from Purulia, Bankura, East and West Midnapore, Birbhum and Nadia will be sworn-in during the first half.

The legislators from Cooch Behar, Alipurduar, Jalpaiguri, North and South Dinajpur and Darjeeling will take the oath of secrecy in the second half.

The swearing-in for the first half will be held between 11 am and 1 pm while the second half will be conducted between 2 pm and 4 pm.