Parl Affairs minister seeks Governor’s nod for Dhupguri MLA’s swearing-in

Kolkata: State Parliamentary Affairs minister, Sovandeb Chattopadhyay, on Monday, sent a letter to Governor C V Ananda Bose asking to give the nod for the oath-taking of Nirmal Chandra Roy who recently won Dhupguri by-election on Trinamool Congress’ (TMC) ticket.

“I have asked the Governor to assign the Speaker of the state Legislative Assembly to administer the oath to Roy. It was pointed out that the people of Dhupguri are being denied necessary public services due to the delay in Roy’s oath-taking. It is the convention that the oath of a newly-elected representative is administered by the Speaker. The Governor’s House has accepted the hard copy of my letter,” Chattopadhyay confirmed.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, on Sunday, advised Chattopadhyay to take up the matter of swearing-in Roy with the Governor so that the needful can be done as early as possible. The result of the by-election was declared on September 8 and nearly three weeks have gone by but Roy has not been sworn in as MLA. It is learnt that Chattopadhyay had already written to the Governor once for the swearing-in of Roy.

Sources said that on Saturday (September 23) all preparations were made at the Governor’s House to administer the oath to Roy who was directly contacted and conveyed the same. However, Roy had denied having received any communication from Raj Bhavan on the issue and did not turn up. On Monday (September 25), Roy received the invitation letter from Raj Bhavan but was shocked to see that it was written on September 21 and was posted by Raj Bhavan on September 22.

Chattopadhyay alleged that the Governor fixed the date (September 23) keeping the Assembly in the dark which was unprecedented. TMC alleged that this was a ploy by Raj Bhavan to delay the swearing-in of the MLA.