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Mamata Banerjee, two other TMC lawmakers sworn in as assembly members
The oath-taking ceremony on Thursday was preceded by a tussle between the state government and the Raj Bhawan
West Bengal governor Jagdeep Dhankhar administered oath to Mamata Banerjee and two other Trinamool Congress (TMC) leaders, Jakir Hossain and Amirul Islam, as members of the assembly on Thursday. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) stayed from the event with its leaders saying it did not carry any special significance.
Banerjee, who was sworn in as the chief minister on May 5, needed to be elected to the assembly by November 4 to continue holding the post. She lost the March-April assembly polls from Nandigram.
The oath-taking ceremony on Thursday was preceded by a tussle between the state government and the Raj Bhawan. According to the convention, it is the speaker who administers the oath to legislators while the governor to ministers.
The governor withdrew the speaker’s power to administer the oath a few days before the September 30 by-polls to three seats in the state. On October 1, the government wrote to the governor, requesting him to authorise the speaker to administer the oath. But Dhankhar sought a gazette notification on the poll results. Because of the governor’s decision, the oath-taking ceremony could not be held on October 4.
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Former lawmaker Sabyasachi Dutta separately quit the BJP to return to the TMC. He joined the BJP after the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. “I took an emotional decision and joined the BJP. I will earnestly serve the TMC in whatever role it gives me,” Dutta said.
BJP leader Jay Prakash Majumdar called Dutta an opportunist. “Probably he came to the BJP looking for lucrative opportunities and found that our party does not allow its members to make fortunes.”
