Winners of bypolls take oath of secrecy

Kolkata: Eight MLAs who have won in the by-elections, took the oath of secrecy on Wednesday.

Biman Bandyopadhyay, Speaker of West Bengal Legislative Assembly, administered the oath of secrecy. Partha Chatterjee, minister of Parliamentary Affairs, was also present.

Of the eight MLAs, four belong to BJP with three from Trinamool Congress and one from Congress. The BJP MLAs are Neeraj Tamang Zimba from Darjeeling, Joyel Murmu from Habibpur (ST), Ashis Kumar Biswas from Krishnagunj (SC) and Pawan Kumar Singh from Bhatpara.

The Trinamool MLAs are Abdul karim Chowdhury from Islampur, Idris Ali from Uluberia east and Sahina Mumtaz Begum from Nawada in Murshidabad. Saiful Alam Khan from Congress, who was elected from Kandi in Murshidabad, also took the oath of secrecy.

The ministers and MLAs became visibly embarrassed after Idris Ali shouted Joy Bangla slogan after the oath of secrecy was administered, while Joyel Murmu of BJP shouted the Jai Sri Ram

slogan.

The Speaker ordered both the slogans to be deleted from the record.

Before administering the oath, Bandyopadhyay had asked all the new MLAs to read out only the oath given to them and say nothing extra. There was apprehension that like the Lok Sabha, where the MPs had shouted Jai Sri Ram and Jai Bangla after taking the oath, the MLAs will follow along the same lines.

Bandyopadhyay reprimanded Ali for flouting his instruction and ordered that both the slogans by Trinamool Congress and BJP MLAs will be deleted from the records of the Assembly.