The impasse over the swearing-in of two newly elected Trinamool Congress (TMC) MLAs in West Bengal ended on Friday with Legislative Assembly Speaker Biman Banerjee administering the oath to Sayantika Banerjee of Baranagar and Reyat Houssen Sarkar from Bhagawangola.
Though West Bengal Governor C V Ananda Bose had deputed Deputy Speaker Ashish Banerjee to administer the oath, he refused to do so, saying “it does not seem good that Deputy Speaker is administering oath while Speaker is present”.
During a Business Advisory committee meeting before the Assembly session, the Speaker had a talk with the Deputy Speaker, following which he agreed to administer the oath. But when the session began, the Deputy Speaker said the Speaker should administer the oath as he was present.
Eventually, violating the Governor’s directive, the Speaker administered the oath to the two MLAs.
The face-off between the TMC government and Governor Bose over the swearing-in ceremony began in the second week of June after the Governor asked the two MLAs to come to the Raj Bhavan for the oath-taking ceremony and they refused.
The Governor, who normally assigns either the Speaker or the Deputy Speaker to give oath to the legislators, sent a letter inviting the MLAs to take oath at the Raj Bhavan on June 26. However, the letter reportedly did not mention who would administer the oath.
This led the TMC to announce that it would not attend the swearing-in ceremony. “It is insulting to a people’s representative. The letter (from Raj Bhavan) only mentioned that a person who will be selected by the governor will administer the oath. This is unprecedented in a democratic system. We will not attend the ceremony,” state Parliamentary Affairs Minister Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay said.
The two newly elected MLAs then started a protest at the Assembly demanding that Governor Bose come to the Assembly to administer the oath or assign the Speaker to take up the task.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee also launched a scathing attack against the Governor for the delay in the swearing-in ceremony. “The two legislators have been elected by people’s mandate. What right does the Governor have to stop them from taking oath? It has been almost a month that uncertainties are shrouding the issue,” Banerjee said at state secretariat Nabanna last week.
“They [the MLA-elects] are right. Either the Governor should nominate the Speaker or the Deputy Speaker to administer the oath, or he should go to the Assembly himself and do the needful. Why will the two MLAs go to the Raj Bhavan? As it is, after what happened in the Raj Bhavan, women are scared to go there. I have received complaints,” Banerjee added, hinting at the police complaint filed by a temporary female staff of the Raj Bhavan accusing the Governor of molestation.
While Assembly Speaker Biman Banerjee sought the attention of President Droupadi Murmu in the matter, Governor Bose hit back at Mamata Banerjee, saying, “Raj Bhavan neither cares for the absurd machinations nor deems it appropriate to respond to waste-bin material.”
