Governor’s ‘silence’ over swearing-in date leave newly-elected MLAs on tenterhooks

Kolkata: The uncertainty looming over the swearing-in of the newly elected MLA, allegedly due to lack of response from Raj Bhavan, has apparently left the residents of the Baranagar Assembly seat in the lurch.

The Baranagar Assembly seat went for bypolls during the Lok Sabha elections in Bengal. The seat was eventually bagged by Trinamool Congress’ (TMC) Sayantika Banerjee after a close battle with BJP’s Sajal Ghosh. Banerjee won by a margin of approximately 8,148 votes. However, despite the victory she is yet to take the oath of MLA without which she is unable to sign on any document which requires the signature of a lawmaker. It has reportedly come to light that people in this Assembly seat are now facing a problem as despite having an MLA, they are not being able to get her signature on crucial documents which has in turn led to delay in certain urgent works which includes certain state government-extended schemes. According to them, following the resignation as MLA by then TMC leader Tapas Roy, an uncertainty was created as to when the seat will again get a new MLA. But even after the by-elections, the problem seems to have remained the same.

Sources in the state government said that despite a letter being sent to Raj Bhavan from the Parliamentary Affairs department seeking nod for the oath taking event, Governor C V Ananda Bose has allegedly not replied to it. The chief government whip in the Assembly, Nirmal Ghosh is learnt to have told the media: “This is an unfortunate instance in Parliamentary democracy. On such occasions the Governor usually hands over this responsibility to the Speaker but in this case he is wanting to do that personally but no one knows when.”

Sayantika reportedly told the media that it cannot be expected that everyone will understand such administrative difficulties and may end up thinking that their MLA is harassing them but such is not the case. I am residing at Baranagar now to help the people as much as I can, she remarked. The Bhagwangola MLA from TMC, Reyat Hossain Sarkar is also waiting to take the oath after winning the seat in the recent bypolls.