Speaker urges Governor to administer oath to newly elected MLAs at Assembly

Kolkata: Assembly Speaker Biman Banerjee once again urged Bengal Governor C V Ananda Bose to come to the Assembly and administer the oath of the two newly elected MLAs of Trinamool Congress (TMC). Banerjee stated that there will be some procedures behind conducting the oath-taking ceremony that can be performed better from the Assembly. He also stressed that the impasse that has been created over the swearing in ceremony of two MLAs must be over.

The Speaker had also sought the intervention of Vice-President Jagdeep Dhankhar on Thursday to resolve the impasse that had been created over the oath-taking ceremony of two newly elected MLAs. Banerjee had also written to President Droupadi Murmu regarding the issue. The two newly-elected Trinamool Congress MLAs — Sayantika Bandyopadhyay and Reyat Houssen Sarkar had earlier requested Governor C V Ananda Bose if their swearing-in ceremony could be done in the Assembly.

Conventionally, in the case of by-polls or in situations where newly elected MLAs need to take the oath, the Governor typically delegates the responsibility to administer the oath to either the Speaker or the Deputy Speaker of the Legislative Assembly. The two newly-elected MLAs failed to take oath following a row over the venue of the swearing-in ceremony.

Both the legislators refused to take oath at Raj Bhavan on Wednesday as directed by Governor C V Ananda Bose. Instead, both waited inside the Assembly premises for the Governor but the latter did not go there.

Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee also supported the demand of the two newly-elected MLAs that either the Governor comes to the Assembly to administer the oath or nominate the Speaker or the Deputy Speaker to do the same.